Painting Horizontal Stripes

Stripes!  They always look so good when they are finished, but boy can they give you a headache during the painting process.  This guestroom wall took me an entire day from start to finish to complete, but when I stand back and look at, I’m happy with the results. 

Unfortunately, I got so wrapped up in painting the wall, that I completely forgot to take pictures as I went along.  I'll just have to explain this process without pics....sorry:(  

 Step 1
First, I needed to figure out how thick I wanted the stripes to be on the nine foot wall.   For this first step I had to do a little math and create a mock drawing of what I wanted the finished wall to look like.

Step 2
Next, I started at the bottom and worked my way up, by measuring and marking where each stripe needed to go with a pencil.

Step 3

The next step was taping……yuck!  This is where it gets complicated to explain, especially without pictures, but I will try my best.  I started by taping one stripe at a time.  For example, I taped the bottom stripe, but because I was going to have to wait for that stripe to dry before painting the next stripe up, I taped every other stripe up, painted those stripes and then worked my way back down.  Yeah….I’m kind of wishing that I took pictures of all of this, so it would be easier to explain….sorry:(

Step 4
Moving on to how I got my tape straight.  Well this part is always tedious, especially since I do it without a laser.  The truth is that once I got the hang of it, the taping went by pretty fast.  I simply used a ruler and measured so many inches up from the previous piece of tape, marking on the wall with a pencil every foot or so across the wall.  Once I dotted with a pencil across the wall, I took the tape and dragged it from dot to dot, so I knew it is straight.    Again…..I am really wishing that I took pictures for you:(

Step 5
Lastly, there’s the actual painting process.  I used three different shades of grey and applied it on the white wall, while still leaving some stripes white.  I chose the colors mink, fawn brindle, and aloof gray, and I painted the stripes with a small trim roller.  Because I didn’t need much of each color, I just bought one samples of each color from Sherwin Williams.  Each sample cost $6, so this wall was painted for less than $20:)  Overall, I really like the look of this wall. It adds interest and was well worth the time and effort:)