How To: Paint Stripes on the Wall

I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do decor-wise in my baby boy’s room {I guess I haven’t told you that I’m having a boy – there’s your update!} I wanted something that would grow with him through the years, but could still be accessorized easily for all ages.

For a while, I came up blank. {did you see what I just said I was looking for? not. easy.}

My favorite-home-decorating-blogger-ever-in-the-whole-wide-world, Layla at The Lettered Cottage, became my go-to for inspiration. She doesn’t have kiddies {yet!} but I knew that I could pull inspiration from within the walls of her adorable home. And I did. She has a little room in her house that she lovingly refers to as The Reading Room, and when I saw how she styled it {the first time around – she has since changed it} I knew I found my inspiration:

Stripes

Photo Credit: The Lettered Cottage

Not just any kind of stripes – horizontal ones.

I love how open and airy they make the room look {I won’t know how it makes the room feel until she invites me over. Hint, hint, Layla.} So I had my mission: paint horizontal stripes on the walls. I did tons of research around the Interwebs in order to make my job easier, and it worked, so I’m going to share with you my findings and show you the pics of the newly-striped-but-hardly-finished-nursery.

Ok – here goes nothin’.

What you’ll need:

• a 4-foot level
• a wall-drawin’ pencil {I’m sure there’s a real term for this, but basically you need one of those pencils that real-live construction dudes use when doin’ what they do}
• 2 different colors of paint
• 2 to 3 rolls of painters tape
• a 6″ roller and cover {or smaller – but no bigger}
• the patience of Job {I kid, I kid}

Step 1: Paint the lighter of the 2 colors that you’ve chosen on the wall – 2 coats minimum. I say to paint the lighter color first simply because it’s easier to paint over. I painted the darker of the 2 colors on my wall first, and everything turned out just fine, but I figure – better safe than sorry, ya know? I would give the paint at least 3-4 days to dry. I was able to let mine dry for a couple of weeks, because I was in no hurry, but even if you’re pressed for time, try to allow what I’ve suggested.

Step 2: Based on the height of the ceiling in the room, figure out how thick you want to make the stripes and how many stripes you want. I was very fortunate that the ceiling height in the baby’s room is an even 8 feet, so I did 8, 12″ stripes.

Step 3: Start drawin’. Use your handy-dandy four-foot level as a ruler; once you get your level to be, well, level, hold onto it tightly against the wall and draw the stripe along the level. Depending on size of your room, this step can move relatively quickly since you’re getting 4 feet worth of a line drawn at a time.

Step 4: Once all of your lines are drawn, go back over them with tape. Remember – every other stripe will be the color that’s already on the wall, so make sure you tape on the outside of the lines where the new color will be painted.

Step 5: Prevent bleeding with painter’s tape. This is a crucial step. All painter’s tape {no matter what the brand says} allows a little bit of bleeding which makes for not-so straight lines and more time you’ll need to spend touching up. This is how you remedy that issue: Take a paintbrush with the color that’s already on the wall and “seal” the edges of the tape. This way – if bleeding does occur, it occurs with the color that’s already on the wall, and then the new color will have perfect lines. This is what your walls will look like at this stage in the game:

Step 6: Paint the new color on every other stripe. This is where having a 6″ or smaller roller will come in handy. I used a regular 9″  roller and found that it was extremely difficult to stay in the lines. Anyway. Make sure you paint at least 2 coats of the new color as well.

Step 7: Pull the tape off while the paint is still wet. This is also important for getting crisp straight lines – if the paint is still wet it doesn’t have time to grab hold of the wall and the tape and cause chipping when it’s pulled off.

If you’ve followed my steps, this is the result you should get:

Except I’m sure you’ll have enough forethought to put the electrical and light switch plates back on before you reveal your work to the world.

We’ll blame that mishap on pregnancy brain.