Painting Stripes-the super easy way

Jesse (my husband) has done most of the renovation (because he is amazing). However, there are some rare spaces that I look on with pride because of my own sweat equity. One of those areas is my painted walls that the mom-in-law of all mom-in-laws helped me with :).
In our laundry room, we painted stripes on all four walls. Let me tell you, this was hard....especially trying to mathematically figure out how to measure the room and stripes so that the stripes ended on opposite colors. My easy tip is to just start measuring for your stripes and if they end up on the same color, remeasure one wall. Trust me, taking a quarter inch off of each stripe on one wall isn't going to be the slight bit noticeable.

When we painted the living room, there was a lot of yellow. I absolutely love yellow-mmmm...the rich buttery kind of yellow- but it was a lot of one color. So...while Jesse was away one day, I went about the task of painting stripes on the two opposite ends of the living room. It took me a total of about 5 hours to paint both walls. There I was-caught red-handed with my paintbrush and on my second coat when he arrived home. I loved the result (and he's admitted he does too) and have received a lot of compliments in the meantime. So...I thought I'd share what I did.

Materials needed: 

• ribbon or string
• pen/pencil
• measuring tape
• level
• painters tape (I went with ScotchBlue Painter's Tape Delicate Surface with Edge-Lock)
• credit card
• small roller and paint

Step 1: Cut a ribbon or string the length of the longest wall you will be painting. Measure off and mark on the ribbon how wide you want your stripes to be. Mine were 5 inches. I didn't want them all to be the same width so I didn't take into consideration the tape. My tape was 1 inch wide. If I did want them to be the same width, I would mark them like this: 5", 4", 5", 4" and so on to account for the 1in. tape.



Step 2: Run the ribbon or string along the bottom section of the wall and tape it in place. I recommend it being about a foot off of the floor.

Step 3: Make sure the ribbon is level and adjust it so it is.




Step 4: Make a mark on the wall for each mark on the ribbon.






Step 5: Do the same for the middle and top of the walls, again, making sure the ribbon is level. You should now have 3 marks (bottom, middle, and top) for each stripe.

Step 6: Start taping. It's easiest to go from top to bottom, making sure to line up the tape with your three marks on the wall.






Step 7: Keep it going-the hard part's almost done!







 Step 8: Very important! Run an old card (like a credit card) and score each tape-line. Trust me, you'll be glad you did. Your paint lines will be as crisp as potato chips :)




Step 9: Start painting! Remember, only every other stripe and apply two coats.







Step 10: Wait a couple of hours (this was the hardest step) and gently pull off the tape. Voilà! Just look at all that beautiful "stripedness"! And yes, Toto once again thinks he's the center of this photo. :)





Tips to making it easier
1. Use what you have. I didn't want to go out and buy more paint so I just mixed some of the yellow with the white I had on me. However, if you're mixing colors, make sure to make more than enough. Otherwise, you will never be able to mix that same color again. I have plenty left over that I labeled for future touch-ups.
2. Use colors on the same spectrum. I had a friend who painted beautiful stripes using slightly different colors but then alternating shiny with a more flat sheen. The look was beautiful!
3. Again, don't worry if you have to adjust a few of the stripes. Having 125 year-old walls makes them as curvy as a sinusoidal function (sorry-my mom's a math teacher)! Nobody will notice a quarter inch difference. And, if they do, you need to throw a more entertaining party. Guests should not be examining your walls for hours on end. 






Do you have a painting story? I'd love to hear about it. Leave a comment or email me!