any Nursery painting tips for a beginner?

[VillainV]

Don't try to use too much paint on the roller in an effort to do it all in one coat, or you'll get drips. You will most likely have to go over it with another coat anyway. Also, don't freak out if the color looks a little off when the paint is wet. When it dries it will match the paint chip.

To do a line, you'll have to mask off the area with blue painters tape. Just make sure the tape is stuck well (especially if you have any texture to your walls) and paint straight down over the tape, not back and forth, or you might get paint under the edge of the tape. I would do the line color first on blank walls -- just measure and mark the area of the line with pencil marks...then paint the area, going slightly over the line. Then when it dries, mask off the edges of the final line and paint your outside color up to the tape. Hope that makes sense....

[Deleted]

We have orange peel textures and couldn't get a straight line even with tape so I would be so nervous about stripes. If you are planning to do decals, stick with flat paint, not eggshell. Even BM matte paint makes the decal less sticky.

[simpsongal]

I love painting and, not to brag, but I'm very good at it. This Old House has some good tutorials on painting, google a couple to familiarize yourself with the process.

For the line, I recommend you use green or yellow frog tape. It seals very well. Wait at least 1 week (preferably 2 weeks) for the wall color to cure before trying to tape over the paint job. Otherwise, you could lift the new paint when removing the tape.

Use a level to make the stripe - don't rely on measurements because walls are not true. If there's a high contrast between the color of the wall and the stripe, I recommend you take the extra effort to "seal" the edge of the stripe. You accomplish this by painting the wall (base coat), wait until it cures (1-2 weeks), tape out the line using a level, then paint the inside of the line with the base color of the wall. After that dries (2 hours or so), then paint the stripe with the stripe color. Painting the inside edges of the stripe with the base coat "seals" the stripe and any bleeding that occurs will be the base color, rather than the stripe. Always remove painters tape as soon as possible (in this case when the stripe color is applied and not yet dry) and pull the tape at about a 45 degree angle from the wall (that helps ensure you don't "peel" the latex paint off the wall.

Good luck!