Painting Stripes the Easy {& Flawless} Way

As I've mentioned before, our new flooring resulted in a lot of other changes, too. It just seems logical to paint before the new stuff is installed {and there's something quite liberating about painting sans drop cloths}.





Although I'm smack-dab in the middle of a {year-long} kitchen makeover, why not randomly throw in a dining room redo, too? I seriously think I have ADD sometimes. Sigh.

This was the before dining room. It's fine. We painted it five years ago when we moved in. The drapes were left by a previous owner and were in the master bedroom and I liked them better in here. Not a whole lot of thought went into actual design here. The table & hutches are family heirlooms on my mother's side. The leaded glass doors were hand-crafted by my late uncle over thirty five years ago. It may be a bit dated, but it is a treasure.

With that being said, I still think it felt like "Sunday dinner at your granny's house". While I would never step on granny's toes...it just wasn't me.

So the goal? 

Go from "Sunday Dinner at Granny's" to "Saturday Night Supper Club with Sinatra". 

Va-va-va-voom. 

The whole reason we hadn't repainted...those hutches are a pain in the hiney to move. But, since we were moving them for the flooring, the series of events started to fall into place: paint, decorate, etc...

Two coats of primer. We hadn't counted on painting the ceiling, but in the end, we did.

We used Behr's colors with Glidden paint {it is significantly cheaper}. Home Depot is all about letting you mix colors/brands. We used the Creme Brulee as the base color {on the ceiling, too} and Winter Garden for the stripes. They look totally different on my walls, IMO.

We painted the whole room with the base color {ceiling and all}. Then let it dry for at least 24 hours before measuring for our stripes and applying the painter's tape for them. It's best to use the lighter color for your base...it's easier to cover the lighter with the darker of your stripes rather than the reverse.

After measuring the height of the two walls we were painting {we didn't paint the window wall...it will be wall-to-wall drapery and *mostly* covered, nor did we paint the wall with the arch to keep things symmetrical}, we determined that we wanted 19 1/2 inch wide stripes {this meant the top or bottom of the wall didn't have a stripe cut in half}. We also studied the wall to make sure we didn't have a darker stripe meeting the ceiling...simply because I didn't want to cut in, again.

I marked the 19 1/2 inch line at several spaces along the wall...just to act as a guide to my laser:

Over the last ten years of marriage, we've painted our share of stripes in various rooms in previous houses {and even our current one}. We even did harlequin diamonds in a nursery once...my absolute favorite painted wall we've ever done. We've used both the chalk line method and the above way {a Black & Decker laser level}. This method is much easier and less messy than the pop & chalk. Plus, this way can be done with only one person...if you're popping a chalk line, you need two people to hold the line taut. 

This is the first line....I place the level on the wall on one of my marks and line its line up with the other marks on the wall to make sure it's straight. Since the bottom stripe was to be the darker stripe color, I placed the tape above it.

This is kind of an important step to make sure that your lines are evenly spaced and the same size: you'll be alternating placing tape above and below your laser lines. On the stripes remaining the base color, your tape will sit within the stripe {on the inside of the laser lines}. On the stripes you're painting with the darker color, the tape will sit on the outside of the lines...so those stripes are the same size as the lighter ones.

  About 3/4 of the way through, I figured out an even easier way to line up the level...of course.

Centering the level in the middle of the wall meant I could just flip it and apply tape to either side. Easier since I was starting on one end with the level, taping half way, then moving the level to the middle of the wall to do it again. As you move up the wall with your taping, just measure from your taped line and do a few hash marks across your line with a pencil before using the laser {again keep in mind whether the tape should be above or below your line depending if the stripe is base color or darker color}.

All taped up. We like to mark the stripes we won't be painting darker with little bits of tape. As you can see those lines are smaller...which has to do with the way you tape in order to keep all stripes the same size, as I mentioned above.

The TRICK: I know I've shared this with you on several other projects, but it is an essential step to having flawless lines. You'll need to seal the tape with your base color before using the darker color for your stripes. The base color will seep under any non-stuck down parts of the tape {especially on super textured walls like we have that make tape unruly}. Be sure to paint in the direction of the tape on the lines that will get more paint.

 All sealed up.

After the sealed parts are completely dry {we let it dry overnight}, you can start rolling on your stripe color.  I really should have used a larger roller...but I just worked with what I had on hand.

We needed two coats of the darker color...but they went on pretty fast! 

Pulling off the tape to reveal those flawless lines thanks to the sealing technique. 

TaDa! The new flooring does help with the new look...a lot. But, I'm loving how the stripes turned out. The wall with the windows will have panels flanking the window....going all the way to the edges of the wall. We're moving the hutches to be side by side on the right wall. I'm building a small, skinny buffet for the left wall. And I'm using aqua for an accent color throughout. I'm also dreaming of a large drum-shade chandelier...but I may have to DIY it since those are really spendy.








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