I’ve Never Met a Stripe I Didn’t Like {How to Paint Perfect Stripes}

Our powder room is a teeny tiny little space just off the kitchen in the entry hallway of our first floor. Like everything else in our home, it started off plain white and boring. Since the space is so small there really wasn’t much I could think of to make it look interesting or give it some character other than doing an interesting paint job. I’ve never met a stripe I didn’t like, so that became my solution. To tie it in with the rest of the main floor, I decided to use leftover paint from the living room and dining room for my stripe colors. This also kept the project pretty cheap—all it cost me was time and energy, some fresh paint brushes, and 2 bottles of wine. Not bad.

I taped little paint sample chips together to decide how I wanted the colors to look from top to bottom. I also decided I’d have my hands full enough with focusing on straight lines that I didn’t want to mess around with them being equal widths. The last thing I wanted was to be half a bottle of wine into the project and see a renegade 8” stripe amidst a series of 6 inchers.

For it being the smallest space in the house, it took the longest to paint. I spent an entire weekend on this project. I was strategic about it and waited for a weekend G would be out of town, just in case things went sour. In my mind my idea was fabulous and sure to be a hit, but you just never know how it’ll all play out in reality. I decided I didn’t want G Unit seeing it until it the stripes were all completed or completely painted over.

 

The dreaded tape job was by far the most tedious and difficult part of the entire process. I used a tape measure for my spacing and a hand level for the straight lines. And here’s what I did to get clean stripe lines without the paint seeping underneath the tape:

1. After putting the tape on the wall I painted over it with a clear glaze (I used leftover Behr Faux Glaze that I had on hand) making sure to go over both the tape AND the wall where the tape meets the wall. This “sealed” the tape to the wall.
2. Once the glaze dried, I painted my stripes.
3. As soon as I finished with my final coat of paint I peeled off the tape (never wait for your final coat to dry–take tape off as soon as possible) and had nice clean lines.
4. The few spots I did have where the paint seeped under the tape were easily fixed. I just used my fingernail and cut it where I wanted the line to be and picked off the excess paint. It easily came off since I was removing the paint from glaze instead of wall. (Bad for your manicure, but hey–sometimes you gotta make sacrifices.)

 

When I first removed the tape it was a bit of a shock. The change was so drastic that I couldn’t decide if I loved it or hated it. And more importantly I couldn’t decide if G would love it or hate it. I almost went straight for the primer, but instead decided to sleep on it. The next morning, awake and sober, I peeked around the pocket door and decided that although it was a big change, I loved it! G came home and had no complaints either–woohoo! So we decided to keep the stripes, and it’s now the most talked about space in the house when we have guests over. And it only took one paint job—brought my average down!

 

 

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