This Viral Gadget is a Must-Have Addition to Your Paint Preparation Routine for Clean, Crisp Lines

Repainting your home is a relatively simple DIY, but there are certain elements that are notoriously difficult to execute - cutting in being one of those. Prepping the room with painters' tape is one way to speed up the process and get a step closer to clean, crisp lines, but taping the edges of your room can be tedious to say the least. What if, instead of painstakingly prepping the perimeter of your room, there was a miraculous little device that did the hard work for you in half the time?

Well, we've found a gadget that does just that. While we all want a professional-worthy paint finish, not all of us have the budget to bring in the experts, but this clever little device is the next best thing when it comes to how to paint a room. If you want clean lines free from smudges, painters' tape is your best friend, and the viral 'masking master' tape applicator makes it easy to prepare your room for painting in a fraction of the time you could apply the tape by hand. Here's why we think it should be an essential part of every decorators tool kit.

When dealing with how to paint a wall, precision is key to the perfect finish. Painters' tape has long been the cheat code to crisp, clean lines, but you have to apply it properly if you want successful results - and that's where many of us go wrong. If you don't take the time to flawlessly apply your tape, adhering it properly to the walls in a neat, straight line, you may as well not bother applying any at all.

That's where the Masking Master comes in. Essentially, it's an applicator for applying your tape, and satisfying videos of it in use have garnered millions of views. The versatile masking tool cuts the tape to the perfect length and ensures precise distancing, creating impeccable straight lines, plus it claims to improve your masking speed by up to five times.

In an industry saturated with gimmicky gadgets, it even has experts' approval, too. Professional painter Tila Lee of Pretty in Paint School has seen many a tool claim to shorten the painting or paint-prep process, often with little success. 'This one however, does seem to be possibly made by someone that could perhaps be in the industry, as I noticed a couple of different attachments on their site to alter their tool for different scenarios,' she says. 'Someone has put some extra thought into this, beyond the typical dropship junk you often see people re-selling with these types of videos.'

If you're wondering how to paint a room fast and efficiently, this gadget should at least make the task of prepping your space far easier. Whether you're painting trim, the ceiling, or trying an accent wall feature, all you have to do is clip in your tape and glide the Masking Master along your edge to apply the tape, plus it also comes with distancing shields.

While you can buy a corned attachment, Tila does offer a few words of warning when it comes to this feature. 'One thing I did notice is it appears like it won't do very well at the seams in corners, and you may end up spending extra time in those areas to make sure there is no bleed through where it doesn't match up completely,' she says.

If you have plans for some fresh paint ideas this summer and you want to streamline the process, we think it's worth a try. It might take a bit of practice getting used to, but if the agonizing task of cutting is your most dreaded part of painting, this tool should certainly be part of your painting tool kit.