Painting - Trying to Understand Painting Terminology

Can someone please clarify some painting terminology??

I'm painting the walls in several rooms in my house. I've used blue painters tape and taped off all the trim and windows and I'm ready to paint the walls. One of the items of been reading says that after applying the first coat of paint, wait until it's dry and scrap off and/or sand off any imperfections, then apply the finish coat. It then says to remove the blue painters tape from the trim after the second coat "sets up." What the heck does "sets up" mean? :confused:

Thanks

Jim

This might help.Sets up means it hasn't fully cured yet.

http://www.thegreentape.com/

I would suggest removing the tape each day. If you get te second coat on the same day, then fine. But if you wait until the next day, take off the tape after the first coat.

Better yet, learn to paint without tape. I friend of mine was complaining about taping his woodwork. I convinced him to go "tapeless". He did that yesterday and was ecstatic over the results.

Didn't want to start a new thread when my question has to do with terminology as well... We're painting all three of our bedrooms and all three closets and the hallway that joins everything - our order has been: ceiling, wall, trim & baseboards but now i'm battling getting a straight line where the wall meets the trim/moulding/baseboard...

I've been reading a lot about "cutting in" but could someone define it for me?

I've tried three different techniques to get a reasonably goodlooking line and am about ready to give up and call in a professional...

Was confident since i have a degree in painting - turns out studio art has nothing on this... ;)

"Cutting in" refers to using the brush to brush in paint around the perimeter of surface to be rolled.
We do it in this order: ceilings 1st, then all trim/woodwork except the baseboard, then walls, then finish off with the baseboard. We find it easier to cut the walls up to the trim, than to paint the skinny edges of the trim up to the walls.
I've tried three different techniques to get a reasonably goodlooking line and am about ready to give up and call in a professional...
What techniques did you try?

I think I understand - do you suggest one of those angled brushes? I haven't tried that yet... Do you end up not worrying about getting paint on the trim? and then go back and paint the trim really carefully so as not to then get paint on the walls?

Here's what I've done...
First attempt- I taped the skinny edges of the trim to finish the walls, but because of the textured wall (and it's old) there were bumps that caused it to be uneven no matter how well i pressed the tape... It seeped in some areas, and was just rough looking in others.

Then I tried to do it freehand two ways - one with the smallest roller i could find, and 2nd with a foambrush - the foambrush worked the best (not saying much) but I couldn't control it well enough and the wall paint went on too thin anyway...

I am going to have to repaint the trim in a few areas where i got wall color on it, and i'm going to have to go back over the thin areas on the wall...

I assume the "cutting in" can be done to finish the wall up where it meets the ceiling too? I still have that left to do as well...

Angled brushes work well for a lot of people. I'm not one bit fond of foam brushes but understand that some with limited experience like them. As PWG said it is usually easiest to apply the trim paint to windows/doors and then come back when dry and paint the walls. Whatever way gives you the best results is the way to go. A quality brush can make all the difference! The top of your walls should have been cut in before rolling. The difference between rolling and brushing is less noticable that way. IMO all tape does is give you a false sense of security as it is rarely applied as straight as you think and will almost always allow seepage under the tape.

Yeah, I've only used foam brushes once or twice, and that was just for stain.
Buy a high quality brush, angle is fine, and try to cut in with it.

Remember, don't expect to get perfect lines/results. That comes with years of practice. If not, I'd be out of a job. ;)

I guess that's true - I think I realized that last night.... :) especially after I was at a friend's house and her lines looked exactly like mine.... i guess it's not as bad as i thought.

thank you so much for your help, we have the angled brushes and will try to finish it tomorrow...

I'm just about complete with painting my entire house(2400sqft). My cut lines weren't great the first couple of rooms, but now, I've gotten a lot of practice. They look much better.

I started out with a straight brush, but when I changed to angled, it was much improved and I'm much faster now.

The angled brush(3") with NO tape works best for me. And I go back with a small artist brush for touch up's if I hit something by mistake(but that's not often anymore).

Angled brush is working wonders - as is the little hobby brush to get into some corners -- THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH... it's going fairly quickly WITHOUT tape - and looks soooo much better than it did before...