Why Wallpaper? Stripe Up Your Life!
This was the first DIY home project I tackled after having my first baby and it was just the right amount of challenge and sense of accomplishment to help me get my groove back! With all my projects, I like to first determine what will be the ‘clean’ stopping points between tasks–with a kiddo and busy work schedule, gone are the days of big blocks of free time. My friends often ask me, “how do you have so much time to do all these projects?” Or when they’re contemplating a project of their own, they tell me that they are deterred by how much time it would take. For me, the trick is breaking the project into a lot of small 45mins-1 hour blocks of time. Sure, it will take longer to complete the project overall (sometimes many months!), but I find each portion of the project more manageable as it fits more easily into our chaotic life. This project worked great in smaller increments– I did most of the taping of the stripes in 30 minute periods of time while my three month old was napping. The only larger period of time I needed (1-2 hours) was for painting the entire room in my base white coat. In the details below I note the easy stopping points for you in hopes that this will encourage you to give the project a try:
Tape off your crown moulding or ceiling with Frog Tape ($9) and remove any electrical switch covers. Depending on room size, this can take about an hour, so when finished it's a good stopping point if you want to save the mess of painting for another day. Your next step is to paint your base coat, which requires the largest uninterrupted amount of time (1-2 hours) of the entire project.
Paint the entire room your base white color, this color will ultimately be stripe color #1. I used Behr Polar Bear for my white base stripe color and I used Behr Confident White for my darker creamy stripe color #2 (both in Matte). I love these Wooster Shortcut Angle Brushes for the edge work painting along the trim and I also recommend this Shur Line Paint Edger. Once your entire base coat is painted, it will need to fully dry before you proceed-- clean those brushes and you're done for the day!
Determine what stripes width you'd like for your design. I opted for 7 inches as I wanted a thick bold appearance to my stripes.
For a measuring guide, I used a stiff notecard that I cut to 7 inches in length, that way I didn't have to continually struggle with a measuring tape up on the ladder and I cut out potential user error in measuring each stripe anew.
Be sure to start marking out your stripes in the most discreet corner of the room. I started my design behind a swinging door that isn't a focal corner of the room. This is important because the last stripe will potentially be the same color as your first one, or just a small portion of the opposite color, ie no room is going to be exactly the multiple length of your stripes and you want to hide the endpoint where they will inevitably mismatch (same concept applies for wallpapering).
With the card as my guide, I then repeatedly made small pencil marks along my crown moulding around the entire room. Marking your lines tends to go quite quickly, it took me only 35 minutes for the entire room. You can take a break here or feel free to start taping off a few stripes. Taping the stripes is the most flexible timing portion of the project, as you can stop at any point and return to it later.
Enter my favorite DIY tool, the laser level! There are a few different laser levels to consider. If you plan on doing a lot of home DIY projects, I highly recommend spending a bit more on the Huepar Self-Leveling laser for $116 and with that purchase you'll also need the Huepar Tripod for $55. I use this for almost every project and recommend the investment, however, if you want to keep the budget down I also love this little Ryobi Air Grip Level for $36. The Air Grip level works just as well and you don't need to purchase a tripod, but be prepared you will burn through AAA batteries with it quite quickly. When you start noticing the laser line is getting fainter and the suction is slipping, that's when it's time to replace the batteries!
I aligned the laser level with each of my pencil marks and then used the same Frog Tape ($9) along each laser line, starting from the ceiling and taping down to my floorboards. I highly recommend you use the specific Frog Tape brand for this project, I found it was far superior than other tapes in preventing paint from bleeding through to the other stripe color.
Here are some pictures to help with the measuring process. Remember, your tape will be lining the exterior borders of each darker stripe, so when the tape is in place the design will appear as though it alternates between a bigger stripe to a smaller stripe, but it's just an optical illusion as they will all be the same size. I draw arrows on my tape in the direction I will be painting the darker stripes to help guide my eye.
Measurement of a dark stripe block, be sure to make sure your tape is on the right side of your laser level, note the difference in the next picture
Note the difference of the picture above to this one-- your tape will alternate between interior and exterior side of the laser level line
Here's the secret to success for the whole project!! Along the edges of the frog tape use a small paint roller to apply your white stripe #1 paint color along the inner tape edges of the stripes that you will ultimately be painting with your darker stripe #2 color. This will create a seal and any paint that does bleed under the tape will then be the same color as the stripe on the other side.
Paint the tape edges of your dark stripe #2 blocks with a coat of your white #1 base color to seal the tape and prevent the dark stripe color from bleeding through to your white stripes
Once the white edging has dried, paint that entire stripe the darker color. If your darker stripe #2 color will require a second coat, then wait for the first coat to dry and apply your second coat. If you do not require a second coat...
Time for the very satisfying reveal!! Remove the frog tape, before you paint has completely dried. Be sure to have a trash bag ready to put your tape directly into so that you avoid getting the wet paint elsewhere in the room. Start at the ceiling and pull the tape downwards.
Final step, remove the frog tape along the moulding and floorboards.
Voila-- now we're seeing stripes! Check out all our before and after photos and videos below!
Share your stripes and feedback with us @nestledinnewcanaan
All Photos Property of Maggie Bentley @nestledinnewcanaan