As mentioned on my “about” page, I’m in the middle of decorating my townhome. When I moved in after the wedding, it was a completely blank canvas. My husband’s excuse was that as a bachelor, he wanted to make sure his wife was able to decorate the way she desired (so thanks, hun). I’m sure other newlywed wives experience this too! What was or will be your first project to make your house more homey?

The first project that I embarked on was painting the white walls. My living room is navy, and there is a highlight wall stenciled with yellow (see first blog post background).

Next, I painted the study. Ming-Gih works at home, so he is in the study all day. Since it’s the work room, I wanted it to be a bit modern. I looked into wallpaper, but not only is it costly, it can be such a pain to put up. Instead, I decided to paint stripes.

Stripes are currently a very popular wall design. Here’s what you need:

• Ruler
• Laser Level*
• Double sided foam tape
• Painter’s tape (I like Frog Tape)*
• Rag
• Tarp
• Paint roller
• Angled paint brush*
• Small touch-up paint brush
• Paint*
• Paint tray

*Product info below

This is really important. PLAN out how thick your stripes will be! Measure the height of your wall and then figure out how thick you want your stripes to be. Here is a layout of the colors and measurement of my wall.

Keep yourself sane: If you are 0.5 – 1.5 inches off of the ideal measurement, the naked eye cannot see it! You’ll notice that I have random measurements in between lines.

TIPS:

1. Use your ruler and measure out the thickness of each stripe on the left and right side of the wall. Mark the measurements out with a pencil.

2. Next, add a strip of foam tape to the back of your laser level so that it sticks on the wall. Take your laser level and start leveling out each of the pencil marks (make sure the level passes through the left and right pencil marks to ensure the line is straight).

3. Once the laser level is in place, start taping along the laser line. When the tape is put into place, take a wet towel and wipe the tape. The water makes theFrog Tape sticky which helps with the lines and less touch ups later.

4. Use little pieces of tape to mark stripes that will not be painted so you do not get confused in the painting process.

5. Paint the edges of the tape with your paint brush first. Brush along the edge of the tape towards the middle, then swipe left and right to even out the paint. I had to do this twice for the color to be even. Then use a roller to paint the entire stripe.

6. Only wait 10 minutes before you start to peel off the tape. If the paint becomes too dry, the paint will peel with the tape.

7. If you are doing two different colors, wait one day for the first color to dry. Then tape the wall up again for the second color.

8. No matter what, there will be paint seepage. Just take a small paint brush, and touch up the stripes.

This is such a fun project, and it will brighten up any room!

Do you like stripes? What colors do you want to paint your house?

Happy Painting,
Jay

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Click on the product to find out details:
Laser Level
Frog Tape
Angled Paint Brush
Valspar Paint:  Red: Bright Red in Eggshell, Grey: Drizzling Mist in Eggshell