If you’ve been following along then you know that a few months ago I shared my Eleven Collection office inspo board (post here). I was dreaming of a black and white striped accent wall, and I thought it was going to be wallpaper.
I ended up finding Dimples and Tangles tutorial for painting a striped wall on Pinterest. I was worried about painting instead of putting up wallpaper because I wanted perfectly CLEAN lines with no little out of line smudges. After reading her trick I decided to give it a try (and painting was much cheaper than the wallpaper)!
So here goes! I have pictures for each step.
Here’s the BEFORE
1. Decide how wide you want your stripes to be. My ceilings are 8 ft. tall and I wanted thicker stripes so I ended up doing 10.5 in. stripes. I roughly measured that out and free handed the white stripes. Just make sure you’re painting them a little OVER where the exact line will be.
Here’s my favorite tip – Nobody likes the clean up process so put a plastic bag/garbage bag in your paint tray that you can throw away after each use. No more cleaning out the paint tray every. single. time.
2. Let those white stripes dry. I waited overnight because you want to be sure they are completely dry before you put tape over fresh paint.
3. Now it’s time to tape the walls for the black stripes. I can’t cut straight, draw straight, or tell if something is even to save my life. That was another reason I was super hesitate to paint STRIPES across a wall myself.
To make it easier I purchased a laser level to show me exactly where I needed to put the tape STRAIGHT across the wall. I purchased this one from Lowe’s for $20. Yes it got the job done, but honestly I should have spent a few more dollars to get one with a stronger light. This one only uses the little watch size batteries and if my wall had been longer than 10 ft. it wouldn’t have been a strong enough laser to reach across. I’m not sure why I didn’t buy a laser level sooner though!!! It would have made hanging curtains and picture frames so much easier.
I’ve heard good things about Frogtape’s “Paint Block Technology” and if there was ever a good time to try it out then it is now! I definitely need it to BLOCK any black paint from getting on my white paint.
4. Now as you’re applying your tape, make sure you’re pressing out all the bubbles because we don’t want any paint seeping through to mess up the clean lines.
5. The next step in blocking the paint from seeping through is to paint over the tape line. I’ll show you what I mean in the pictures below. This is apparently the magic trick for getting clean lines!
6. Wait for the new white paint over the tape lines to dry then it’s time for the black paint! I bought the black paint from Lowe’s. I just went to the paint counter and asked for them to make me some regular plain ole black paint. It only took a quart that was $15 so that’s a win. I had to paint two coats of the black.
Painters tip #2 for you – wrap your paint roller in plastic and stick it in the fridge to avoid cleaning your rollers between coats. What a time saver!!! I wish I had known about that trick for the countless number of previous paint jobs.
7. After my second coat of black paint I immediately took off the tape. I didn’t wait for the stripes to dry. I held my breath as I began peeling back that first piece of tape…. and I was delighted to see a clean, crisp line behind it!
Here’s the final AFTER
I think I smiled the entire time I peeled off that tape. I was in love with how it turned out! My fear was gone and I was so happy I tackled this project that cost me less than $50 (Tape $8, black paint $15, laser $20, and I already had white paint on hand). You can do this too! I hope you found this helpful and made you ready to paint some stripes!
The rest of the office reveal is coming soon!
