Painting Stripes On Your Walls

Painting Stripes On Your Walls

Painting walls can take a lot of time and can make some homeowners cautious about taking on this caretaking project.  However, repainting the interior walls of your home can freshen up and update your home, unlike almost any other type of project.  Furthermore, once you have invested the time and the resources to paint your walls, you can easily bump up the pizzazz in a room, by adding paint stripes, or some other type of faux finish, to the wall’s surface.  

If you are considering adding stripes to your painted walls, then you will be happy to hear that this project is really a lot simpler than you might think.  By following just a few simple and practical steps, your walls can soon have the elegance and style of painted stripes.  This is a paint project that anyone can do, even if you have never painted stripes before now.  With just a bit of time, precision, and patience, you can transform any room that you choose.

The first step is to plan which wall you would like to paint with stripes.  Are you considering vertical stripes or horizontal stripes, and would you like wide stripes or narrow ones?  Once your plan is organized in your mind, then you need to put your plan into action.

Measure the height and width of the wall that you wish to paint.  Using a colored pencil, make a small mark where you would like the stripes to be placed.  Depending on how narrow or how wide you want your stripes, the marks are typically about every 5-10 inches apart.  Next, draw a straight line along each marked spot.  You should use a yard stick or a level in order to make the lines straight all the way across, or up and down, on the wall.

Applying painter’s tape along each straight line is the next thing that you will need to perform.  Ensure that the tape is pressed down firmly, in order to prevent paint from leaking underneath the edges.  Now, you are able to paint the base color onto your wall.  Paint directly over the painter’s tape.  Once the base color is completely dry, then remove the painter’s tape.

You may now leave the wall as it is, if you are happy with the two contrasting colors.  Or, you may place new painter’s tape over the recently painted surface, along either side of the straight lines, and paint the wall space that was originally covered with painter’s tape.  You may paint these stripes any color that you believe will be complimentary to the new paint.  Once again, do not remove the painter’s tape until the wall is completely dry.  Voila!  You now have beautiful, unique, elegant stripes along your painted wall!