For nothing will be impossible with God
Luke 1:37
I must admit, there are times that I question this, and one of those times was during my most recent project. I truly felt like this one might be impossible, but I was going to give it my A+ effort nonetheless, and would not stop until I was done. I was on a mission, and I got stripes! (Get it?? Anyone??)
To say that I love the final product is a gross understatement! But, let me tell you this my friends, things did not start out so gorgeous. I've been scanning design magazines for months and months and months and two of the things that I was adamant about for our little house were hardwood floors installed at a diagonal, CHECK (blogpost coming soon!) and horizontal stripes on the walls of one room. Because the main living area includes the kitchen, dining and living rooms, I knew the horizontal stripes would be a bit overkill for that area. That left one of the bathrooms… no way, too much work for one small room which would end up looking too busy OR the guest bedroom. Bingo! Guest bedroom it is! Now that I decided I was actually going to move forward with stripes, I thought it over and gathered up the supplies that I thought I'd need. Let me start by saying that once I decide I am going to do something, I do it. These pictures are not professional grade because 1. I am not a professional photographer and 2. I get so excited about my projects that I have to force myself to stop working to grab my iPhone for a quick second to take a shot.
You really only need a handful of supplies for this project. It is relatively inexpensive but packs a huge punch if you have the time and patience to do this yourself.
I collected:
one roll of painters tape to mark my lines
a pencil
tape measure
laser level (that will attach to the wall)
step stool (so that I could reach the higher stripes to be made)
First, I measured the total height of the walls so that I could calculate the width of the horizontal stripes that I would paint. This would be based on the final number of stripes that I wanted. My walls were ~90 inches so I knew that I could paint 6 total stripes and easily measure out each horizontal stripe to 15 inches. Get it? 15inches x 6stripes is equal to 90 inches/wall height
After that calculation, I went around to each corner of the room and measured/marked increments of 15inches from the floor to the ceiling. I did this on each wall at the door frames as well. Because I wanted to ensure this project turned out well, I measured in increments of 15 a few inches over from each corner and door frame too. This way, I had a measured place where I could stabilize my laser without compromising how straight my lines would turn out by the doors and corners of the room. Check out the picture above to see exactly what I mean.
After all of the marks had been made, I used my laser level to reach mark to mark.
I decided that the first stripe would be the base wall color. I had already trimmed around the baseboards with the base coat and didn't want to create extra work for myself. This meant that the second stripe would be in color 2. To ensure that the stripe that would get painted would be the fill 15 inches wide, I placed the painters tape below the first laser line.
Because I knew that I would have 6 total stripes, all in equal width, once the project was over, I marked whether the tape was above or below the stripe to be painted. Before I started marking the stripes with painters tape, I had applied a solid, even coat of paint that I wanted to be one of the stripe colors. This ensured that I had even coverage for my base color.
This picture shows the arrows that I drew on the painters tape all around the room. Those arrows in the picture above indicate that the stripe above the tape would be painted.
To create the full 15 inch horizontal stripe, I put the tape ABOVE the laser line for the top of that painted stripe. Now the area between those two tape lines will be painted and measured the full 15inches.
This picture better shows the difference in the tape-marked stripe widths. Again, each stripe is marked whether the painted stripe will be painted above or below the tape lines.
Here you can see my order. There are six stripes marked in total. Like I said before, from floor to ceiling I decided that I wanted DARK, light, DARK, light, DARK, light. My tape always stayed on the DARK paint side of my laser when making the stripe lines, ensuring the appropriate width for the light lines that would get painted.
I'm sure that you can do this project without a laser, but because I marked all of the lines myself, I didn't think it would hurt to use this little guy that we already had around the house. If you don't have one, you can find this Black and Decker laser level on Amazon for about $10. For me, this would definitely be worth the investment. Black and Decker is not paying me for this endorsement and I don't have any type of affiliation with their company, I just know that it was a huge help during my project!
Now that all of my lines were taped off, I started to paint, carefully following my arrows that indicated which stripes needed to get painted with the contrasting color.
Wow, I was actually starting to see progress!
I applied two coats of the lighter paint to ensure I got full coverage before I even thought about peeling the tape.
I waited two long and torturous days to remove that tape. I had been so patient during this project that I did not want to spoil my walls with hasty removal!
It was love at first sight!
And second!
And third! We finally had a room that was done and could be decorated!
I used my antique oak dresser and bed from college (yes, college, I bought them as investment pieces knowing that I would have them for years) for our guest room, along with some other pieces I picked up. The lamp came from my local Home Goods and the vase and frame came from Target.
This painting belonged to my late grandmother, Mottie. It is so special that I have this in my home now and reminds me of her every time that I walk past it! I had these books in my collection and decided decorate them since our storage space is limited in our little house.
Old and new linens (all from Pottery Barn) give this room such a cozy, but modern feeling. I love all of the different elements that make this the perfect guest room for our little house!
Before
After!
