Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Stripety Stripe Stripe Stripe

After having the last little and barely being able to move for many months, I decided my first post-baby project would be to paint stripes. The upstairs hallway was the winner because it's long and a little dark in spots, and I didn't want to lock the stripes in a room and not be able to enjoy them only, say, when I went in the bathroom. So, five minutes after deciding, the tools were out and we were stripping  stripe-ing. 
Sort of. There is some prep work that needs to be done, which is why I hadn't tackled it before. But other than having to commit a few naptimes and evenings to it, it wasn't bad, and gave the hallway so much attitude, I'd do it again in a minute...
What I was really hoping for was to lighten/brighten the color so that I would be ok with the dark color that I was itching to re-paint. It didn't work, and soon after, I repainted over the green ... which meant repainting the ENTIRE house. Weird how that happens.

There are a lot of how to's all over blogland. I did the basic level, with 12-ish inches planned for the stripes, and some frog tape. I used paint the same color as the wall to seal the edges and I was on my way. LOVE me some stripes, and I don't have to worry that they make it look wider...that was the goal.

Green: Churchill Hotel Olive (Valspar?)
White: French Linen (Benjamin Moore)
Both mixed at Walmart. Because I'm cheap like that. 


Linking up to:
shabby creek cottage



The DIY Show Off




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9 comments:

  1. I may do this next week on the wall in the front room of my house. You know, the one that is completely empty! Rana

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  2. I love it. Inspires me to do some stripes. Hmmm where should I put them? Hallway upstairs or foyer? The picture gallery looks good too.

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  3. WAY to go! Excellent job! Not only do I love the paint job, but the way you did your family wall gallery as well! Cute blog name too! ;)

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  4. They look great! I like your gallery of pictures too.
    I found you on the DIY Showcase link party.

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  5. You did a great job with this hallway too! Thanks for sharing at my party!

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  6. Wow!! Where did you get the large letter "R"?

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    1. The big R was purchased from a Joann superstore. The little regular Joann where I live now doesn't have anything in this size...but I think they may carry them online. They are HUGE! :)
      Chris

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  7. What is the trick to get nice clean lines with the stripes/ The wall im intending to use has a very slight texture to it......any hints?

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    1. Oh gosh - I was pretty terrible at explaining that, wasn't I? This is what I did -
      Using a level, starting at the ceiling, I marked exactly 12 (I think) inches down from the ceiling and made a dot. I did this the entire length of the wall. Then I connected the dots by putting up my frog tape. I made sure it was level by using my level along the way, but I never had an issue with straightness when I just connected the dots. To do the next line down, I did the same thing, measured down 12 inches from my tape line, put dots along the wall, connected them with frog tape.

      My walls are textured. Not heavy textured, but like orange peel. To make the lines PERFECT without a smudge at all, I sealed the frog tape by taking my base wall color, which in this case was olive, and lightly sealing the edge of the tape that would be the top or bottom of the stripe with it. It doesn't have to be heavy, but you will paint the base color along the entire length of the tape where a stripe will be.
      Let it dry. Then, put your stripe color on. In this case, white.

      That's it. I have perfect lines with no bleeding through because of texture. This is the only way to make absolutely perfect lines.

      Hope this helps! Thanks for coming by!

      Chris

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