A new tape on the block.

For your viewing pleasure…

 

Rewind to 2009. I picked this lamp at TJ Max for a song. You can’t really tell from the pic but the lamp is HUGE. It was kind of ugly but I swear it seems like ugly and quirky are the new pretty in design. It was a little too ugly for my liking so I sprayed it a cream color and it looked worlds better.

 The family that purchased our house came in and wanted to buy practically everything.  I reluctantly sold her a few things but the lamp wasn’t one of them.  Just a word of advice…if anyone ever wants to purchase your furniture when they buy your house SELL IT ALL to them! Don’t even bat an eye.  You buy furniture specifically for your house based off the specific dimensions and style.  Hardly anything that I packed up and brought with me fits in our new house and I’ve sold almost the majority of it now anyway.

Back to the lamp.  Now that it’s three years later the lamp is in a new space with new furnishings around it and needed a little Botox facelift.  Enter the new kid on the block: ScotchBlue™ Painter’s Tape with Edge Lock.  Well, not exactly new…just improved.  Now you may recall that I’ve been singing praises of another competitor’s tape out there.  So when 3M approached me about giving their tape a try I knew it would have a lot to live up to.

My trusty old spray paint cans (you know where this is going)…
I decided to do a little color blocking on my lamp. Plus one of my little men graffitied the thing so it was a good opportunity to perform a little diy urgent care.

 Because my lamp had curves it made it a little tricky to get the tape perfectly smooth.  After you apply your tape whether it is to a wall or lamp or any other project you need to go back and study your tape application.  If you see any bubbles or bumps you need to either re-apply a new piece of tape or smooth the heck out of it so there is no air pocket under the tape, otherwise your paint will bleed no matter what claims have been made on the tape.  The success of your painting project will be determined by how much time you put in to your taping prep work.  After I apply it I give it a good rub with my finger and when I say “good rub” we’re talking a full on Swedish Massage.  You’ve got to use pressure people to make sure your tape is good and adhered.  Tape is tape, not Cryptonite.  I see so many people complain that their tape didn’t work but it’s usually because they didn’t Swedish Massage it down and put WAY TOO MUCH paint on so the tape was saturated and began to peel off the wall.  Oh yeah, you bet I’ve got strong opinions about tape and paint. 🙂

After one coat of spray primer and one coat of gold spray paint I’ve got myself a perfectly clean edge.

Verdict:  ScotchBlue™ Painter’s Tape works!