Apply masking tape in straight lines to get perfect stripes.
Stripes add a kind of liveliness to a room that is hard to achieve with solid-color paint. There are many methods for getting the perfect stripes on your walls, as well as plenty of options for color contrast and stripe width. You can create a subtle, classic look by striping similar colors such as antique white and a soft beige or gray, or you can go bold with colors like red and gold. Vertical stripes are the best choice for making a room look taller, giving you the feeling of greater space. A basic two-color, 3-inch stripe involves a simple technique.
Instructions
1. Paint the room you wish to stripe with a solid coat of your lighter stripe color. Paintbrushes work best for corners, while rollers work best for large areas. Allow the paint to dry completely.
2. Measure your wall along the baseboard, and mark every 3 inches with a small pencil mark.
3. Stand on a ladder, and have someone help you do the same thing across the top of the wall where it meets the ceiling.
4. Apply strips of 3-inch-wide painter's masking tape from the top to the bottom of the wall, lining up the tape precisely between your top and bottom marks. For even striping, apply tape at every other set of marks. You can skip sets of marks and apply double strips of tape to others if you want to vary the width of your stripes. Any place you tape will keep the lighter color, while the open areas will get your darker stripe color.
5. Press a wallpaper brush firmly against your tape stripes at the top, and use the brush to smooth the tape down as much as possible so paint won't seep underneath.
6. Cut in your darker color of paint at the top and bottom of each stripe where the roller cannot reach without hitting the floor or ceiling. Use only vertical strokes to minimize seepage under the tape.
7. Roll your darker color over the wall and tape in vertical strokes to fill in the rest of the areas between the tape.
8. Carefully peel the tape off the wall once the paint is dry.
9. Touch up any paint bleed between stripes with a small angled paintbrush.
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