One Room Challenge Week 5 – How to Paint the Perfect Striped Wall

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This week for the One Room Challenge has been a busy one but I don’t feel like I have much to show for it. This week we focused mainly on the closet to finish painting it.  Two weeks ago I had asked whether I should paint stripes on the closet wall or paint/sew stripes onto the curtains itself.  That was my original plan but the thought of sewing stripes on curtains when I didn’t know how to sew seemed quite intimidating.  I’m happy to say though that last weekend my mom gave me a tutorial on how to sew!  Now I do NOT call myself a seamstress by any means but I can hem some pants and now some curtains!  That’s pretty good right?!

In 6 short weeks I have done a ton to get this room reveal ready but I’m feeling the pressure to have it completely finished by next week.  I do feel like the stuff that needs to be done is the fun part…organizing! I don’t claim to be the cleanest person in the world but I do love organizing.  If you are new here or you want to rewind and review the process so far check out the previous weeks.

Week 1  |  Week 2  |  Week 3  |  Week 4

This week, as I said before, was focused on painting the closet so I wanted to give a quick tutorial on how to paint perfect stripes on a wall. 

How to Paint Perfect Stripes on a Wall

First you need to paint the wall your base color, mine was white.  After the paint is dry then you can decide the width of the stripes that you want on your wall.  In my case I went with the width of dropped ceiling on the left hand side.  I started with the white stripe on the top and right below that dropped ceiling area I began with the first black stripe.  The area measured to 10 3/8 inches, so that was my magic number.  Here is a reminder of what the closet looked like beforehand.

It was now time to tape the walls.  I taped the walls with my favorite painters tape, frog tape.  I made sure the stripes were level by using a laser level.  I highly recommend using one as it will create a perfectly straight line across your wall which will guide in placing the tape on the wall.  I held the level while my husband taped.  Note: You can find levels that will attach to the wall or stand on a tripod so it can be a one person project.

A tip that I figured out on my own (as I’m sure you would too), you have to tape above or below the laser line depending on which stripe you are working on.  Example: When you are leaving the stripe the color of the wall you want to tape on top of the laser line as you aren’t painting there again.  The next line down you want to tape below the laser line so that it is on the next white stripe.  It can get confusing while you are taping as it doesn’t look perfectly even but I promise it makes sense. 🙂  You want the tape to always be in the white stripes.  Also create an “x” with your tape on the areas that aren’t going to be painted.  It just helps keep your mind clear when starting to paint.

The next step is to paint over the tape with the base color, in my case white, where you are going to paint the colored stripes.  This step is very important because if any paint is going to bleed through the tape, it will be white.  When you paint your colored stripe, the paint won’t leak through as the original coating will seal the tape even more.  Frog tape is amazing and shouldn’t leak through but you can never be too careful!  Better safe than sorry is always my motto!

All that’s left to do is paint stripes your color of choice!  Obviously you want the previous paint to be dry. Since my color of choice was black I needed to do 2 coats of black.  Let your first coat of paint dry and then come back to apply your second coat.  While the 2nd coat of paint is still wet you want to remove the tape. Here is a pic of the stripes after one coat of paint.

I love how it turned out and now I can’t wait to decorate the room!  There isn’t a ton left to do to complete the room but at the same time there is a ton left to do! 🙂  Here is a sneak peak of the painted stripes!

Lets take a look at my to do list and see how I’m doing:

1. Paint
2. Stencil Walls
3. Paint Bed Frame
4. Nightstands
5. Buy new lamp shades
6. Buy bedspread
7. Paint desk or not paint desk? – don’t paint desk
8. Desk Organization & Accessories
9. Jazz up Bookshelf
10. Curtains for closet & window – paint stripes on curtain?  & hem curtains
11. Craft Room in Closet
    1. Find Storage for everything
    2. Paint Walls 
    3. Remove shelf & Rod
    4. Paint desk inside closet/make desk
    5. Create craft storage/desk storage

I’m slowly but surely moving along and enjoying it the whole way through!  Thank you to Linda for creating such a fun and motivating challenge!  There have been multiple times this past couple weeks I have lacked motivation to work on the room but the time frame of the challenge motivated me to get off my butt and work!  Can I do a challenge for every room?!  Haha that would be nice but I think it would get old! Needless to say I look forward to linking up again in the Spring for the One Room Challenge!  Have a great weekend everyone!