STRIPES – Add Pattern To Your Walls

Adding pattern and texture to a room makes it interesting to the eye and even though we love the beautiful designs of wallpaper, it’s not always practical – especially on our often uneven and sometimes damp stone walls.  However, PAINTING stripes on a feature wall is a great compromise.

For the best result, make sure you do your prep work.  The first step is to measure the walls accurately and come up with a pattern that will fit evenly.  Once you have the dimensions of your space and planned our your design, sketch it out on a piece of graph paper.  Just to be sure, tape out a sample board with a full scale model of your stripes and paint it with your chosen colours.  When selecting your colour scheme, consider alternating not only colour but paint sheen – for example a matte stripe next to a satin stripe.  It will give your wall more movement.

Now that your planning is done, it’s time to pick up your paint brush.  If you’re only using two colours, I find it easier to paint one of the shades on the entire wall as your base coat.  After the paint has dried well, go ahead and tape out the stripes for the second colour.  Use a high quality tape like Frog Tape or 3M Edge Lock Tape for the sharpest lines.  Use a level and a tape measure to make sure your stripes are even.  If your design is off by even a bit the whole room will look off.

Now that your (second colour) stripes are taped, use the BASE COLOUR to paint the edge of the tape and give it a perfect seal.  Even if the paint bleeds, you’ll never see it because it’s bleeding on the same colour.  After this dries, leave the tape on but now paint the second stripe colour on top.  Peel back the tape gently after everything dries well (usually after 3-4 hours depending on humidity and temperature).

Need some ideas?  We found these creative spaces on Houzz.