It is week 3 of the One Room Challenge!! And we got to paint Adleigh’s room this week!! Which means we are one step closer to having the room be complete. And trust me, I am so looking forward to that. Because I always forget how much work goes into this entire process. It is totally worth it but it is a lot of brain power!!

I wasn’t totally sure what color I should do for Adleigh’s room. I mean, I knew I wanted a black but wasn’t sure of which black. Because there are a lot of black options out there. And I needed that black to go well with the purple for the other walls. You can read more of my design plans here.

After we decluttered her entire room, we could patch the walls and paint. And this time we are testing out a new painting tool my husband is excited to try!! It is the Wagner Smart Edge Roller. This roller is suppose to paint edges without needed tape. Because there is a guard on the roller and everything!!

In the video below I am sharing how to use the roller so you can do the same at your home!

How To Paint Edges Without Tape

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The Colors

After a ton of deliberation, I decided on Black Satin from Benjamin Moore. This color worked really well in Adleigh’s room when we did samples on the wall. Because she has 3 windows on the east side of our house, I needed to be careful of coloring. Too dark and her room would feel cold. Too light and there wouldn’t be enough contrast. 

In the original design plans, we were going to only paint the two walls with windows. After we got the paint up on the two walls, we decided it needed to also go on the wall with her closet. The little alcove into her bedroom and only wall without anything on it were painted Rock Harbor Violet from Benjamin Moore. It is super subtle but gives a beautiful purple hue.

Both paints we went with an eggshell finish. Because the Black Satin is so dark, having some shine to it will brighten it up. And eggshell is easy to clean since she is only 7!

How To Paint Edges Without Tape

So to paint the walls black, we started with painting the edges. We (and by we I mean my husband) used the Wagner Smart Edge Roller to paint around all the windows, the closet, and baseboards. To use the Smart Edge Roller, start by removing the roller and swapping it out for the paint tip part. Put the paint tip sucker part into the paint. Then gradually pull the bottom of the roller tube up to suck up the paint. Once the tube is full, remove the paint tip part and hang on the paint can if it will fit. Then screw the roller back on.

Once roller is on, pump the yellow pump to get the paint onto the roller. We found it really helpful to get the paint evenly distributed on the roller by first rolling the roller on a part of the wall. Once the entire roller is covered, then you can start going around the edges without needing any tape!

Use the roller guide on the side of the roller to ensure the paint doesn’t get on the trim or baseboards. But it made painting edges go so much faster!!

Another tip on how to paint edges without tape is to have a paint rag ready to wipe off any paint that may make its way onto the paint guide. My husband is a messy painter, so his hands get covered in paint before he starts. It never bothers him, but when refilling the Smart Edge Roller, he got paint on the guide. We noticed it before he started doing the window trim, but just wanted to note that it is really helpful to keep a rag handy to wipe to ensure totally clean edges!

Getting The Dark Paint Just Right

After we finished painting the edges, we used a large roller to finish painting the remaining walls the Black Satin. Because the walls are so dark, we had to make sure that the color looked smooth throughout. But I didn’t want the entire room to feel cold.

We made sure to have prepped the walls before. That means patching any holes or imperfections first. This helps when the paint goes on that you don’t see any bumps since the dark color will show everything! It is my love/hate with dark wall colors. On our brand new walls, the look great. But on our older walls, we have to do a lot of prep to ensure they look good!

To prep walls, we have found adding a lot of caulk has worked best. Once the caulk dries, we do a lot of sanding. But when we add more, we have found that we get smoother walls than when we don’t use as much. No idea why that is, but our 1950’s house is weird, so it makes sense!

We also had to make sure we did a few coats of paint. This is a big one when using dark paint. You will need to do 2-3 coats to ensure it looks smooth and not blotchy.  

Check Out All The Other One Room Challenge Participants

Now that the painting is done, we can start hanging curtains and decorating the space! I am still waiting for her new bed to be delivered along with her curtains. This challenge has been fun and challenging at the same time because I am only ordering things, not going into stores. So things are taking a bit longer than anticipated. But when things do show up, it is like Christmas! If you want real-time action, head to my Instagram and watch Adleigh’s room transform in my stories.

Go check out all the other participants from the One Room Challenge on their week 3 adventures. There are so many cool projects taking place, I am getting some serious inspiration! You can check out the other participants here.