Behr's Raffia Cream

Paint Brush

Blue Painter's Tape... the special kind with good edges!

Level

Pencil

Tape Measure

We engineered our layout: Decide a pattern that best fits your style and space (how many stripes you want). Since we have a beachier, casual style, we opted for wider stripes. It is all mathematical now …we measured the full length of our wall and divided that number by twice the number of stripes that we wanted to have minus one (ex: our ceiling is 91? tall and we wanted five horizontal stripes (in the new color) so we (and by we I mean Kevin) divided 91 by 11 (5 x 2 = 10+ 1 = 11) to get the thickness of each stripe. Each stripe would come out to be about 8.27 inches. We added 1 to 10 because we wanted our top and bottom stripes to both be white (If you didn’t you would minus 1).

Step 2: Fill it: We decided to keep the white on the wall and only add a soft tan as the stripes. If you plan to have two colors, be sure paint your first wall color (this should be the lightest color) and leave it to dry completely.

Step 3: Mark it: (Make sure the first color is dry before any other steps are completed). We used a ruler and marked off every 8.27 inches starting from the floor and working our way up to the ceiling (we made two small pencil marks on each side of the wall). We then used a level to join the marks with a light pencil line.

Step4: Tape It: The key to a successful striping job is the tape! We grabbed some blue painter’s tape and joined our pencil markings to form taped off stripes (once the tape is in place make sure that the tape is nice and secure on the wall to prevent the paint from bleeding). We placed the tape outside the marks for the stripes we would be painting (the 8.25 inches), but inside the marks in the negative space that we wouldn’t be painting. Although after the taping was complete, it looked like the stripes weren’t the same size, we had to account for the width of the tape itself. So, keep that in mind if you decide to get stripey with us!

Step 5: Roll it: Next, we snatched a good roller and our paint… We then grabbed a brush a put a little spot on the stripes that were to be painted, that way we didn’t get confused! We applied two even and thin coats of our paint between the tape that was further apart to create our loving stripes. Kevin is usually the roller and I am the cut-in gal. I am better at the details and he is a rocker at rolling!

Step 5: Pull the tape off: This is a very important step. We waited until our wall was completely dry; then we began pulling the tape off the wall. It is essential to pull the tape off at an angle and slowly! A lot of people advise pulling the tape off when the wall is still wet; this is an incorrect suggestion as it can create a mess with the wet paint and wet tape. It truly is better to wait until the wall is dry and the remnant paint of the tape is too!

Ta-dah… and enjoy!