The Easy Way to Paint Stripes

Have you guys noticed that stripes are everywhere lately?  I was just in the Gap today and I swear everything there was striped- which is ok by me because I love stripes!  When we first moved into our house I knew I wanted to paint stripes somewhere.  I chose our downstairs powder room to try it out in since it's our smallest room in the house.  I love to do something bold in a powder room- it keeps things fun and unexpected!

The living/dining room adjacent to the powder room is Chelsea Gray, a deep charcoal color.  The beige is Valspar- Cincinnatian Hotel Hannaford and the white was left over from our dining room Benjamin Moore- Dune White.

If you are choosing a subtle look- similar to what I did, I recommend trying a sheen change between the stripes.  My base beige color is a Flat paint and my white stripes are a Semi - Gloss.

Stripes work best in a small room like a powder room or doing a single wall of a room almost like an accent wall but cooler!

Here are my easy steps to painting stripes

My apologies for not having "action shots" of this!  I did this long before I thought I'd have a blog :-)

1.  Paint the base coat first and let it dry for at least 72 hours or longer.  I painted the beige one weekend and then painted the stripes the next weekend.

2.  Measure the height of the wall from the top of the wood base up to the ceiling and divide by the number of stripes you want to get the width of each stripe.  I knew I didn't want the white at the ceiling or the base- so I knew I wanted an odd amount of stripes.  I chose 7 and that gave me approximately 15" wide stripes.  I recommend choosing 5, 7 or 9 stripes.

3.  Once you have the width of your stripes- make a small mark on the wall at the height of each stripe.  When I was marking mine out I noticed that the top of one of my stripes was going to be 1/2" over the sink and I really wanted to line it up with the top of the sink so... I did!  Your eye will not be able to detect a slight difference in the widths of the stripes so don't feel you have to be 100% exact.

4.  Get out your laser leveler and line it up at each mark you've made to tape it out.  Remember to tape on the inside of the stripes that are not being painted so you get the full width of the ones you are painting.

5.  Get rolling!  I used a small 6" roller because I felt I had better control.  Start at the top stripe and work your way down so you don't bump into the wet ones.

6.  As soon as you've got everything painted start pulling the tape off- if you pull it off before the paint is fully cured you're paint is less likely to peel off with the tape.