How to Paint Your Walls with Stripes
Painting walls with stripes
Back when my granddaughter was in eighth grade, she wanted two of the walls in her bedroom painted in pink and purple stripes, and the other walls pink. Since her mother and father both work, I told her I would help her do this. Of course, she wanted to begin painting immediately, but I explained we would have to come up with measurements first so we could decide just how to go about the process.
First we measured her wall, figured out the best combination of pink and purple stripes. She had pretty specific ideas of what she wanted so that was easy. Her idea was to have the purple stripes different sizes, reducing in size from the middle to the corners, and each of the pink stripes in between the purple would be equal in size. The wall measured approximately 10'8" and we started out by finding the middle of the room. So the middle stripe, which was going to be purple was 8" and the stripes on either side, which were pink, were going to be 12." The next purple stripes on both sides were 6", the next pink ones were 12", the next purple were 4", the next pink were 12", the next purple were 2", and the last pink ones on both ends of the wall were 12." We measured and marked the wall with these stripes, and used blue painter's tape to mark where we were to paint the purple stripes. The first purple stripe in the middle of the wall had to be measured half on each side of the middle marking. The tape had to be placed on the outside of the marked areas so that we had an 8" space, and they had to be straight vertically. After painting all of these marked areas purple, we left the paint dry for a day before we removed the painter's tape. Then, to paint the pink stripes, we applied blue painter's tape on the edges of the purple stripes to keep the pink paint from bleeding onto the purple. The blue painter's tape was used because it would not remove the fresh paint under it when the tape was removed from the wall. And, wonder of wonders, it actually worked! The two pink stripes at the end of the wall were not quite 12" but that was not noticeable as it was such a small difference.
After completing such a project, we were pleasantly surprised how well it turned out and how easy it actually was. So if you have a wall somewhere in your house that you would like painted stripes, don't be afraid of the project. As with any project, the most important aspect is to measure and mark accurately. It never pays to take shortcuts.
©joaniebaby - 3-14-12