How To Paint Stripes On A Wall

Sometimes you don't know how easy something will be until you dive in and give it a try. I learned that this weekend when I decided to take the plunge and paint stripes on one of the walls in the nursery. It was easier than I had anticipated and figured I would give you all a tutorial of how to do this project so you can try it, too.

First, you choose the wall where you want to paint the stripes. Initially I was going to paint the wall behind the crib. After careful thought, I decided that the stripes would look better and stand out more against the dark dresser rather than blending with the white crib.  

The next step is to decide how many stripes and how wide you want them on your wall. I measured the wall from ceiling to trim. That's where I hit a bit of a snag. The wall is 92" on the left side and 93" on the right side. After careful thought I decided that I wanted each stripe to be 10" wide. That would give me 9 stripes, with one of them being 2-3" wider than the rest. I was alright with this because with 9 stripes I could make sure that the top and bottom stripe were the same color as the rest of the walls. That helps to make things flow within the room. The larger stripe would be the bottom one and because of the furniture, this minor difference wouldn't be noticeable. Once that was decided I whipped out my ruler/level and pencil and began marking the wall. 

Starting at the ceiling I measured 10 inches down and made a mark. I continued this a few times down the length of the wall. Once I had my first line marked, I used my level to connect the dots. I relied more on the level than I did the marks to ensure I would have a straight, even line. The marks were used simply as a guide since the wall is uneven from left to right. I continued this pattern until I had 9 stripes lined out in pencil on the wall.

I used the previous line as a guide with my level to mark even 10 inches down.

I have read that many people use an L-ruler to draw their lines, but since walls vary and you could have an issue like I did where the wall is uneven, the level worked out much easier and faster for me.

Once your marks are set, you can begin to tape out your stripes. One thing you want to make sure is that you line the tape up along the lines on the outside of the stripe you are painting. The painter's tape will then be on the inside of the stripe you are leaving alone. Your wall will look something like this:

Stripes 2, 4, 6, and 8 are the ones being painted.

Don't forget to put a strip of tape at the corners of the wall. Not only does this keep the paint only on the wall you want, but it guides you eye and helps make sure you are painting the correct stripe. All the lines can make you a bit dizzy and you don't want to accidentally paint the wrong stripe. I also wrote a small 'W' on the pieces that I was painting as a guide. You can see a faint letter in the below picture. 

Now here is where I need to take a moment to praise FrogTape. (And no I am not being paid to do this.) I have always been a loyal blue painter's tape user. It was what my dad always used when he would paint around the house when I was younger, so I never thought twice. That being said, I have always had issues using with bleeding through and the tape tearing paint off the ceiling when the blue tape was removed. 

When researching how to paint stripes, every blog and website I found insisted that you must use the green FrogTape for your lines. They all swore that using this tape would result in no bleeding paint. I figured I might as well give it a try. Boy am I glad I did. This tape was so easy to use. Not only did it apply easily, but my lines came out perfect. I have now become a loyal user of FrogTape and I vow to never turn back to the blue stuff.

Ok back to the project.

One trick I've read that I found to be incredibly useful is to take some of the leftover paint from the wall color and do a thin coat of that color along the edges of the painter's tape inside each stripe. That way if you are prone to paint bleeding through your tape (like I always am), the bleed will blend in with the wall color. You just need to wait a few hours after doing this step before painting the stripes their color to ensure that the edges have dried. 

Once that has dried, it's time to paint your stripes! I purchased a mini roller and paint tray to match my mini paint can. But also so that I can just rely on a roller for the stripes rather than a brush to ensure even paint distribution. Depending on the width of your stripes you may not be able to use an average sized paint roller. 

The color I chose was Martha Stewart's 'Lamb." It's a white color with a hint of a grey tone. I picked that color so that it would go nicely with the grey in the neutral 'Sharkey Gray' the rest of the walls were painted. 

One of the great things about Martha Stewart paint swatches is that tiny symbol in the corner. The paint swatches with the same symbols coordinate best together. So when I was looking for a hue of white to go with Sharkey Grey, I found one that had the same symbol as the color we already painted the room. 

picture snagged from Home Depot

Because of the color we initially painted the wall, it took me 4 coats to cover it and evenly fill the stripes. I simply painted top stripe to bottom stripe and then over again four times. I didn't wait an hour or so between coats, but it worked out just fine for me.

These pictures are only after the first or second coat, I forget which.

Now another important trick is to remove the painter's tape right after you finish the final coat, before the paint dries. If you wait until the paint is completely dry you may end up peeling up some paint, resulting in jagged, uneven lines. 

Once you remove the tape, your walls will look like this:

That doesn't seem so hard, now does it? Honestly all this project takes is some patience and dedication. The hardest and most crucial part is in the beginning when you are measuring and marking the stripes. Once you get the tape set and whip out the roller it's smooth sailing from there on. 

I'm so glad I gave it a try and couldn't be happier with the results. Now I can't wait to take on more challenging DIY projects that I've always wanted to try but never had the guts to do.

Updated photos:

Nursery Update

Lots of work put into the nursery this weekend. I'm really excited with the progress we have made in the last two days. Although in my opinion there is still a ton to accomplish, it's finally starting to look like a functioning room. With the exception of the glider that is still at my in-laws' house, the main furniture components are in place. The room still needs bedding, wall art, a mirror and other decor accessories. Oh yea, and all the important things needed to take care of a baby (you know, the real necessities). But those are on my registry and will come when the baby shower comes. :) 

Yup! This weekend I took on the task of painting stripes along one of the walls in the nursery. I didn't mention that I had planned to do this just in case things didn't work out. I have never painted stripes before so I really wasn't sure what to expect. I made sure I had some leftover "Sharkey Gray" on hand just in case I needed to do an emergency fix. Surprisingly it wasn't as difficult as I had anticipated. It just takes time and patience along with attention to detail.

I plan to post a "how-to" last this week explaining the steps I took to paint the stripes.

The lamp on the dresser will eventually be replaced once I find a new one I like. I also want to hang a mirror on the wall above the dresser. I'm leaning towards a large, round one. Artwork will be added to the wall to the right as well as some sort of art above the crib. Nothing too heavy that can't be secured tightly to the wall since it is going to be hung above where our little girl will be sleeping every night.

Earlier today we took a quick trip to IKEA and purchased the Expedit bookcase I had told you about. Only $69.99 for the 8 compartment version. The baskets were taken from the living room bookshelf at no extra cost to us. 

We purchased this furry friend, too:

RENS sheepskin rug - $24.99

We replaced the boring plastic white blinds with these wooden beauties. The LINDMON blinds in natural for $24.99 (31"x61"). Although it's hard to tell because I took most of the pictures with the blinds open, they looks so great in the room

Now that we will be having a little one to watch out for, we were sure to install this safety feature:

When the blinds are pulled open and the the strings are long and hanging loosely, they can be wrapped around this small metal piece. This will keep them out of a toddler's reach and prevent a choking hazard. It's crazy to think that we need to take all of these warning signs about children safety into serious consideration now. Not that we lived in a dangerous house before, but I never had to worry about Jordan choking himself on a blind cord. :)

We slid the dresser/changing table over slightly to the left of the wall to leave room for the glider to fit in the corner. 

As you can see, the sun still peeks over quite a bit in the direction where the glider is going to be. Once I decide on curtains to hang with the blinds this issue should hopefully be alleviated. When we painted last weekend I was sure to leave the curtain rod in place that we had in the room when it was an office/junk room combo.

And one more peek towards the closet with the nifty new door pulls I purchased earlier this week.

This is where our painting and other construction supplies are currently being hid.

Along with a ton of diapers!

You may have noticed the paint and testers on the wall. I'm trying to decide what color to paint the inside of the closet. We took down the shelf and rod that were installed for the time being and spackled the holes. Once I decide on a color, that will be the next nursery project I am working on. The shelf and rod will be replaced, probably just a little lower so that when our girl is old enough she can reach her clothes. 

The colors I'm decided between both Martha Stewart: Enamelware (left) and Artesian Well (right).

Enamelware (top) - Artesian Well (bottom)

Which do you think I will pick? :)

How to Spruce Up Your Decor for Next to Nothing

I've posted once before how I used old thrift store finds, a glue gun and twine rope to make some ordinary household items, not so ordinary. Well, I've done it once again!

When I first gave you a tour of our master bedroom, we had an IKEA Ribba shelf hung above our bed. Wanting to personalize our bedroom, I used the shelf to display our wedding invitation, my dress hanger, and a framed wedding portrait. Romantic, right?

The romance lasted about a week. While making the bed one day the large portrait fell off the shelf and onto the bed. Afraid that it would fall again while we were sleeping, I decided to relocate it and find something else to do on the shelf. 

I played around with some candles and the remaining wedding memorabilia on the shelf, but something was missing. With the black and white everything against the nude wall, the decor all seemed to blend in with itself. 

I decided them to implement my glue gun and twine technique on the candles that I had used before. 

What you need:

glue gun, twine, and whatever items you want to make pretty

This project cost me a whopping $0.00 simply because I already had all the supplies. The candles were a simple pack of 6 that I purchased a few years back from Marshalls. They have floated from room to room throughout our house since then. I also have owned the twine since moving in. I forget why we bought it, but my dad used it for something. However, you can find your own twine for under $10.00 (and usually under $5.00) at most craft or home improvement stores. Here are a few I found online:  

$4.06 Seagrass at AC Moore

$2.98 at Home Depot

$4.95 Jute Twine at Amazon

In order to do this project, I simply used a dab of glue near the bottom of the candle to hold the end of the twine. I proceeded to wrap the twine around the candle a few times, stopping every so often for another dab of glue in order the keep the rope from moving. Once you've wrapped enough a simple snip with some scissors and a final bit of glue and will finish it. WIthin just a few minutes, I had 6 brand new candles.

I chose to alternate them on the shelf with another set of candles from Marshalls. 

These ones are skinny and round instead of square.

And where did I put the picture I moved from the shelf?

That frame found  a new home above my chair by the door. I'm still toying with the idea of mounting the wedding dress hanger on the wall below the frame.

There you have it. A cheap, quick and easy way to spruce up your old decor. Less than $10 and less than 10 minutes. Can't beat that, can you?

Things

Just a few shots I took last weekend in our living room. 

Finally getting comfortable with our camera.

Next nursery project is on for this weekend. Details for you soon. 

Details

I can be a very detail oriented person. When it comes to anything, the smallest things that might not matter or may go unnoticed by others really matter to me. It drives Jordan nuts sometimes that I am so picky or that it takes me so long to make the simplest decision. In the end I am usually very satisfied with my decision and it was worth the time it took to make that choice.


When wedding planning every detail down to the thickness of ribbon on the favors, or the exact shade of green for the table runners was scrutinized and carefully selected by me. There were times when I would take so long to make a decision or change my mind so many times, even my mom would tell me "no one will notice but you." But so me, that was enough to matter.


In the end, I wouldn't change a thing. I am so glad I took my time making every tiny decision because it all turned out exactly how I imagined. It was so worth it to me to hear the compliments on our wedding day about how beautiful everything was. A friend of mine even commented that the font on the menus (that I designed and printed myself) was 'so Jess.' I knew that even if only one or two guests took note of a certain detail, I was satisfied.  


Why ramble on about the importance of details? Because I made a small change in the nursery this evening. This is how the closet in the nursery looked on Saturday.

Last night, I purchased new knobs and replaced the boring wooden ones with the fun, girly alternative. Here are the knobs I chose from:

sorry for the crappy iphone quality picture

I initially went to Anthropologie ready to buy the second knob. After searching on their website, I had my mind set that that was the perfect knob for the closet door. Once I got to the store, however, I was suddenly indecisive. The second knob started to look a little to abstract and cartoon-like. The rose was very pretty, but seemed too antique for my tastes. I narrowed the choices to #1 and #3. After walking the store for a few minutes I finally made my decision.

Tada! We have a winner:

Ceramic Melon Knob

I chose this knob because it was more youthful than the others. And in the end, that's the point of a little girl's room, right? The first knob was much larger which I really liked, but I wasn't sold on the gold detailing. Especially since all the hardware in the room already is nickel. 

See why I love details so much? The smallest change can make a great difference.

Sorry for the dark pictures. Rainy day today!