Improvised Paint Shield
How to improvise without a store-bought paint shield.
I don’t paint enough trim to have the steady hand required to paint windows and trim without some kind of masking. Usually, I reach for my paint shield for some help. It has a bladelike straight edge that resembles a Venetian blind and tucks into the corner where wall meets door casing or window glass meets muntin.
I had a bunch of windows to paint, and my paint shield had gone missing. But I did have a leftover piece of plastic J-bead for 1/2-in. drywall. With a couple of drywall screws, I affixed the J-bead to a wooden handle. I used this squeegee look-alike in the manner shown in the drawing to speed up my window painting. It worked so well that the store-bought paint shield may be out of a job if it ever turns up again.
Edited and illustrated by Charles Miller
From Fine Homebuilding #162
