This past weekend James and I had a free day together so we headed over to my new client meeting/studio space to do some painting! I knew that I wanted to keep most of the walls white since I’ll be hanging canvases on them, but I had the idea in my head to do large, horizontal stripes on one wall. I had seen some photos online of what I was thinking, so I did a little research on it and off to the paint store we went!

I chose a gray color called “Online” from Sherwin-Williams. I wanted to stay consistent with my branding colors (turquoise, gray, and white), and also wanted to use a more neutral color that wouldn’t overtake the room (which is why I didn’t go with turquoise for the stripes).

Here’s how the wall looked before we started…

Step 1: Measure the wall

Sounds simple enough, right? Measuring the height of the wall was easy (90″ tall), but figuring out how far apart the stripes would be was a little more difficult than I imagined… It was more complicated than it would normally be because we wanted to keep the bottom and top stripes on the wall white (didn’t want to have to remove outlet covers or tape off the ceiling) and I wanted each stripe to be exactly equal in height. That might mean that we were feeling lazy, or it might just be that we are extra smart. ;-)

I ended up using an equation that I found online to figure it out, but the simplest way is to take the height of your wall and divide by the total number of stripes you want it to have. In our case that number was 9 (painted 4 gray stripes, which left 5 white stripes). So, 90 divided by 9 = 10 inches. That means that each stripe would be 10 in high. If you have an idea of how big you want your stripes to be, but don’t know exactly how many stripes you’ll need total, you may want to just do some trial and error until you get a number that you’re happy with. In my case, I knew that I didn’t want my stripes any bigger than 12 in. (too big for my taste) and I didn’t want them smaller than about 8 in. or so (too many stripes would create a dizzying effect).

Step 2: Tape for stripes

We used FrogTape to mark our stripes and it worked awesome! Keep in mind that if one of the stripe colors that you are wanting is not already the base coat on the wall that you will need to paint the whole wall that color first. For example, if I want my wall to be yellow and blue stripes, I would need to first paint the whole wall the lighter color (yellow) and after it has FULLY dried (personally I would wait a couple of days to be safe) and then add my darker stripes (blue).

It’s super important to use a level when marking the walls or you’ll most likely find that your lines gradually lean to one side. There’s probably a more proper way to go about marking the walls with the tape that what we did, but we just did it to where James held the level in place while I taped along the line. It was slow going at first, but once I got the hang of it I was able to move pretty fast. About half way through we figured out a little trick: once the level was completely “level” I would mark where the laser hit on the intersecting wall with a piece of tape. That way if the laser shifted at all while I was taping, James could quickly readjust it using the piece of tape on the intersecting wall.

Another helpful tip that I had read online was to put small pieces of tape on the stripes that you’re not painting so that when you go to paint you don’t get confused! This also helps you to remember whether you need to put the tape above or below the line, depending which stripe you’re on.

TIP: Run a credit card along the tape to help smooth it down and keep the paint from seeping through.

Step 3: Paint

The actual painting part was super easy and fast! We used rollers for the bulk of the stripes and brushes around the edges of the wall. We only had to do one coat of paint (which is why we LOVE Sherwin-Williams).

Step 4: Remove Tape

The key here is to remove the tape while the paint is still wet. If you wait until it has completely dried you run the risk of removing paint with the tape. Since we only had to use one coat of paint, we started removing the tape within just a couple of minutes after completing the paint job. If you have to do two coats of paint you’ll obviously want to wait until you’ve finished your second coat (before it dries though).

Step 5: Enjoy your new wall stripes!

I really love the way the stripes turned out and it’s exactly what I had in mind! I took these photos right after the tape was removed, so the wall was still wet. I’m excited to see what it looks like now that it has completely dried.

The whole project only took about 2 and a half hours from start to finish! Since it ended up being so easy and we have paint left over, I’m thinking I may need to add some stripes to one of my rooms at home. :-) To see some more photos of walls with stripes and get some inspiration for your own space, check out this link.

TIP: Horizontal stripes makes a room feel larger, vertical stripes make a room feel taller.

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