Tone-on-tone stripes give walls an artistic depth.
Painting striped walls is one of the simplest interior design techniques available to help you change the entire look of a room. Not only do you add depth and interest, but painting wall stripes is a whole lot less work than putting up striped wallpaper, and easier to replace when you decide on another change. The trick to professional-looking painted wall stripes is in your preparation. The more carefully you prepare, the better the results.
Instructions
1. Collect paint sample cards to find the right colors.
Pick your paint colors and finishes. Tone-on-tone stripes are more subtle, and you can add a lot of depth by making the base coat a flat or eggshell finish, and the stripes satin or glossy.
2. Tape off all doorways, windows, outlets and other trim with low-tack painter's tape. Cover the floor and any furniture that can't be removed from the room with dropcloths.
3. Paint the base coat on with a wide roller. Let it dry according to the manufacturer's recommendations and apply a second coat if the color is not as deep or true as you like. Let it dry completely.
4. It's important to figure out how much wall space you have.
Measure your walls with a tape measure. Add up the total number of inches. For example, a rectangular room with 10-foot short walls and 14-foot long walls comes out to 48 total feet. Multiply that by 12 inches per foot and you have a total of 576 inches to work with.
5. Use the calculator to try out different widths until you find a number that comes out evenly. Our hypothetical room is a total of 576 inches. To put 5-inch stripes, you will have 115.2 stripes--that half stripe is going to look funny all by itself. Go up to 6 inches and you can fit 96 stripes. Wider stripes are more casual, while narrow ones are more formal.
6. Start at one corner of the room and measure off 6-inch increments. Start at floor level and work up, both for horizontal and vertical stripes. This is easier than moving a stepladder every few stripes.
7. Draw lines up the wall at your pencil marks, using a 4-foot carpenter's level as your straight-edge, and to make sure your lines are straight. Measure the width at several different points as you go, to ensure you are staying true.
8. Put low-tack painter's tape along the outside edges of the pencil lines. Place a sticky note between the outside edges of the tape to mark the spots you are not going to paint. After a full day of painting, especially if there are two or more painters, you can get confused about which pairs of tape get paint between them. The sticky notes will keep you on track.
9. Use an edging brush to line the sides of the first stripe. Go all the way from the ceiling to the floor, and then use a paint brush or small roller to fill in the stripe.
10. Paint three or four more stripes and then go back and remove the painter's tape. It's easier to get it of off the wall when the paint is still tacky.
11. Repeat painting a few stripes at a time and then removing the tape for the rest of the room. Let the paint dry overnight before moving furniture back in or hanging artwork or curtains.
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