How to Paint Striped Walls ~ My Guest Room Makeover in Progress

Hello sweet friends. Thank you all for your encouraging words about my insecurities and lack of confidence. Seems I am not the only one who has to deal with an ever-present inner critic. But I am sure that if we keep doing what we are doing here in blogland – encouraging each other to chase our dreams – then we will surely all get that critic under control.

So you all want to see what I have been up to during my summer break….

Well after the months long project of the Billy Built-in Bookcase (my BBB project), I showed you in July, was finally finished I was left with a beautiful bookcase in an empty boring little room.

Guest Room before

A true blank canvas with not much space to work with. But I was itching to do something special with this room. Because if you can think teeny tiny rooms are hopeless you haven’t seen Layla’s Reading Room.

AFTER Ever since I saw this picture of the Reading Room in The Lettered Cottage it has been haunting me. Such a nice, tranquil room and I loved those stripes. What if I painted stripes in my room?

The room being so tiny made it seem like a doable job. So I went for it.

Of course the job turned out much more difficult, troublesome and time-consuming then I thought beforehand. It is a good thing I always underestimate these things or I would never start a project like this. But it worked out, see:

Nice he, lovely stripes. Want to know how I did it? Want to know what NOT  to do? Keep on reading, I documented all of it, mistakes and problems and all.

Ok then here we go:

1. Paint the room in the light base color. Mine was already white but I gave it a fresh coat.

2. Get a level and start taping of the walls. Because my ceiling is sloped I decided to start with a white stripe first. I made my stripes about 30 cm wide (12”), in fact I just went with the length of my ruler because that was easiest.

I used one of those little laser levels:

Laser Level

You have to level it yourself and then the laser sprouts a red beam that you can use to mark and tape off.

Paint Tape Lines

3. Work your way all around.

Ok sounds easy enough he. Well by the time I had come full circle it became evident my lines were off. Like way off, like centimeters (about 2 inches) off. The line started at the top of a shelf on my bookcase and ended up way under that shelf on the other side.

And I had really diligently used that level. My Love checked my work to see where I went wrong and he could not detect any point where I was visibly not level. But I must have been.

So I got myself an early birthday gift and bought an automatic level.

So step 2 should have been: get yourself one of these things.

Automatic Laser Level

No guessing whether the water bubble is in the middle of the two lines on your level, this one is fully automatic, and guaranteed level all the time.

When I checked my lines I could clearly see they were all a teeny tiny bit off, and that added up to a big mess.

4. Start over. Remove tape, re-measure and re-level and tape the whole thing again.

And that would be day one of ‘ let’s just paint some stripes’ ….

5. Paint over your tape with your base color.

Paint tape Line

Here you can see I wasn’t taking any chances. I painted over the tape with white paint so that if there would be any leakage under the tape it wouldn’t be visible because it was the same white as my base stripe.

And you can also see I marked where the color should go. Don’t I know myself well…..

6. Paint your stripes.

Painted Stripes Dark Guest Room

7. Ignore your gut feeling that the color is wrong and try to convince yourself it has to grow on you. Finish the painting of the stripes (which after all that prep work only took an hour and a half).

Painted Stripes Dark Guest Room 2

8. Decide that the color really looks much darker on the wall than on the paint strip and in the can, and that you don’t like it. Mix a hell of a lot of white in with the paint, and paint again.

9. Relish in the new color and start removing the tape.

10 Cry your eyes out….

Paint tape disaster

I had used the wrong kind of tape, left it too long, or simply was working with bad walls. I don’t know what exactly caused my problem but when I removed the tape a lot of the recent paint layers came off leaving me with these ugly patches.

So step 1 should have been:

1. Buy quality painters tape, preferably the kind to be used on delicate surfaces….

If only I followed my own tips…..

11. Spend half a day patching up the damaged spots and removing any left-over stripe marks.

Painted Stripes Light Guest Room

12. Truly and utterly love your stripes!!!

Painted Stripes Light Guest Room 2

13. Decide it was all worth it….

So what do you think? Good job, learn anything, did I put you off of painting stripes altogether or have I encouraged you it will be worth it???

 

Songbird | Website | + posts

Marianne Songbird is the founder of Songbird, where she hopes to inspire everyone to create a home they love, one DIY project at a time. She shares anything from craft ideas to home decor inspiration and from DIY projects to decorating hacks. Originally from the Netherlands Marianne and her husband Lex are currently renovating a 250-year-old farmhouse in Germany.

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26 Comments

  1. Your final result looks lovely. I'm really feeling your pain though. I thought I was the only one who has mishaps like this when I try to paint a room! I'll bookmark this page to use the next time I decide to paint a room. (If I ever dare try that again..lol)

  2. It's absolutely beautiful. I so appreciate your tips, too. You are doing a great job.

  3. Shel at Dreamy Nest says:

    It's pretty! I'm sorry you had such a hard time with it. Stripes are – well, not fun. I haven't tackled them yet because of that. 🙂 Thanks for sharing what trouble you ran into. That helps a lot. I applaud you for being courageous enough to try!

  4. i think it looks grand and my heart went out to you with all the disappointments when i tackle a job like this i need to be really in the mood for ups and downs that comes with painting…..anxious to see what else you do!

  5. Brenda@Cozy Little House says:

    You've got far more nerve than I do!
    Brenda

  6. Anne - Fiona and Twig says:

    It looks positively gorgeous!
    I've used cheap painter's tape, too. Ouch is right!

    Have a wonderful day!
    Hugs,
    Anne

  7. I have admired wall stripes from a far for several years but now I may have to try this.

    It turned out absolutely splendid and I especially like the colors. Could I hire you to come across the pond?

  8. Green Willow Pond says:

    Oh Marianne…I know exactly how you feel! The exact same thing happened to me a little over a week ago. I blogged about it here: http://greenwillowpond.blogspot.com/2010/08/i-could-just-cry.html

    It's been so humid here I've still not fixed it. I did pull hunks of paint that had not adhered well off, sand and re-prime, but I'm afraid to paint until the humidity goes down even more.

    I used frog tape, thinking it was the best and was very disappointed. What tape did you finally use?

    Your walls turned out beautiful in the end. I sure hope mine do!

  9. I am so impressed, Marianne! The stripes look awesome! La

  10. Pieces of Dreams says:

    Marianne! What a wonderful job you did!!! I love stripes. I think they make such a contribution to decorating. I love them on walls, fabric, furniture…. You should be very proud of a job well done. Karen

  11. ::cottage instincts:: says:

    Marianne that looks AMAZING!!!! Absolutely love it, and I'm sorry the project was such a headache. Seems all our little ideas run into snags 🙂 But yes, definitely worth the headache, and thanks so much for the tutorial.

    peace,
    cindy

  12. Ali @ Honey and Maple Syrup says:

    Oh my gosh, my heart totally goes out to you! I know that feeling of when one thing after another goes wrong and it's so frustrating, but at least it looked great in the end!

  13. The Polka Dot Closet says:

    OMG you poor thing! I guess it must be like giving birth, I do love your new stripe baby!

    Carol

  14. Wauw, wat een klus! Ik denk dat ik er eerst 3 keer over na moet denken om het ook te gaan doen. Misschien banen behang overdwars?? Is misschien makkelijker.
    Maaar, het eindresultaat is hartstikke mooi geworden. Ik kan niet wachten op de rest, want je voorbeeld is echt ontzettend leuk!
    Succes!
    groetjes Antoinette.

  15. Miss Marple says:

    Ik lig in een deuk over jouw verhaal en vind de kamer hartsikke mooi geworden! Mag ik me nu al als logeetje aanmelden???
    Zonnige groetjes – Irma

  16. Wat een werk! Maar het resultaat is ernaar! Heel erg mooi.
    groetjes,
    Marianne

  17. I've always wanted to do stripes!!!
    Looks great!

  18. Elly-My Everyday Things says:

    Kijk, dit zijn nou nog eens bruikbare tips! Wat balen dat je de verf er weer aftrok! Grrr… dan heb je er wel zo de pé in! En dan die lijnen die niet recht lopen… heb ik ook een keer gehad! Liepen het plafond én de vloer scheef (oud huis hè!), dus de metingen klopten helemaal niet meer. Maar ach, met wat smokkelen kom je er dan ook wel hoor!
    Maarrr…:dikke complimenten, het ziet er prachtig en strak uit!

  19. Norma Lee @ Norma Lee Good says:

    Wow. Love the stripes and it looks like that tool is something magical! What a great Christmas present!!

  20. Mayflower says:

    Prachtige strepen Marianne. Ik heb in de kamer een wand vol verticale strepen en heb dat destijds ook op deze manier gedaan en weet wat voor een klus dat is hihi.
    Ben benieuwd hoe je de kamer gaat inrichten, wordt vervolgd misschien?

  21. Funky Junk Interiors says:

    Gorgeous! And thanks for pointing out all the errors that transpired. MUCH appreciated!

    Can't wait to see this room all put together. 🙂

    Donna

  22. je ziet maar weer: de aanhouder wint, want dat die strepen niet gemakkelijk zullen zijn in een oud huis laat zich raden, maar misschien heb ik ook wat aan je tip van dat handige apparaatje, want een gewone waterpas werkt niet echt met scheve plafonds en scheve vloeren.
    Het resultaat is prachtig geworden bij je! Mijn ervaring met afplakband is: DIRECT er afhalen, maar dan nog. Destijds wilde ik dat de schilders hier een lambrizeringslatje in hal 1 zouden ophangen. Bij wijze van 'proef' deed de hoofdpiet er een plakband op, om te checken of hij mij begrepen had (ik heb altijd van die dingen als: onder die hoek etc.) trok hij tijdens ons gesprek het plakband eraf èn het stucwerk. Mmm ik was niet blij; het is rotspul! Ook de professionele schilderskwaliteit en zeker in een oud huis. Ik vind de logeerkamer echt mooi geworden. Gaat je beroemde koffertafel er terug in? Of grijp je je kans om je creatieve sappen weer tot op hun kookpunt te laten komen? Hoe dan ook: ik wens je veel plezier dit weekend en bij het inrichten van deze kamer!

  23. Manuela@TPOH says:

    Horizontal stripes are hard but worth the effort. I love how yours look!

    Manuela

  24. vosges paris says:

    ohh bah ik herken dit wel , niet in mijn eigen huis..daar ging het wonderbaarlijk goed.. kreukeltape gebruikt ipv normale tape dus dat was een.. later ging ik dit ook even op de gestucte muur bij de buurvrouw doen.. en ja hoor net als bij jou gaten!! haar moeder vertelde dat je het beste de blauwe tape kunt gebruiken voor deze klussen en ja dat zie je ook altijd op tv in de diy programmas…

    Anyway je kamer ziet er prima uit! dit vind ik ook een van de leuke dingen van het bloggen. de ideetjes die je bij elkaar opdoet 😉
    ben benieuwd naar het eind resultaat.

  25. Beth@The Stories of A2Z says:

    I think it looks amazing! Way to not give up and to show those walls whose boss :). Great job!!!

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