Monday, May 30, 2011

Baby Nursery: DIY Painting Stripes






The past few weeks I've been encompassed in a big painting project.
I decided that I wanted to go BOLD for BabyMo's room. 

Just to get you PUMPED up for the project...
...Let me show you a sneak peak of the final room all put together...


Prior to the stripes the room was completely white, vanilla and bland.
It was the perfect blank canvas.


Here is the BEFORE and AFTER of the striped wall I did for his room:
Okay.  Are you ready to paint some stripes?  
Here's a short tutorial of how to do it!

Step 1: Find your inspiration
I used this scrapbook paper as my inspiration and pulled the colors right from this paper.
I took it to Lowe's and matched the colors right in their paint department.
Here are the paint chips for the colors I picked (All Valspar Satin finish)
Side Note: I'm positive that the brown tone called "Milk Chocolate" had no affect on me selecting it.  Humm maybe a little bit.
Step 2: Gather your painting supplies
I picked one gallon of my main room color and used my handy dandy $5 off Valspar coupon that was mailed to me a few months back.  They also sent me a couple of paint samples, but they didn't make it into this room. I did use their tiny rolling brushes (awesome!) as well as a few sponge brushes for painting.
I purchased four paint samples in my "bold" stripe colors. Then, I checked out the 'reject' paint rack and picked up one extra color (shown in the middle) which went nicely with those I had picked out.

All in all I spent about $60 in paint ( 1 gallon and 5 samples), rollers, paint trays, etc.
I also used all the leftover paint for my art projects in the room!
Be sure to purchase quality painting tape.
I went with Frog Tape.
It is the ONLY tape to use when painting stripes. 
It worked AWESOME.
I think it's the only tape the MoMomma household will use going forward.
Step 3: Tape off the room
Step 4: Get your "base" color ready to paint
This tan color is called "Woodrow Wilson Putty" by Valspar.
TIP TIP TIP!  
TIP ALERT:  Go find one of those empty formula containers and use it as a paint container!
It worked AWESOME for holding a small amount of paint while going around the room edging.
Check it out... the perfect size... AND ... a built in comfort grip!  :)
I don't know about you, but I have about forty of these things in my pantry! This was the perfect use.
Step 5: Plan
The next thing I did was to plan out how I wanted the wall to look.  I knew I wanted an element of random design on the wall.  But I also wanted a game plan to go by.  So, here is the plan I made on Photoshop.

Below you can see my tiny computer screen (plan) in front of my blank slate!
Step 6: Tape off your first lines
I knew I wanted to incorporate the white of the original wall, so I first taped off the lines that I wanted to STAY white before I painted the tan over this wall.

TIP TIP TIP!
TIP ALERT: It's important to use a RULER and a LEVEL to make sure these lines are straight.
 Okay, so here are my lines that I want to STAY white (the original wall color).
I wanted them to be thin, so I kept them the width of the Frog Tape.
Step 7:  Paint the edges of the tape the BACKGROUND color.
This can be the confusing part going forward so, take a step back and really think this one through before painting the wrong color or the wrong area of your wall.

The reason you are painting the edges the same color as the background is so that IF it bleeds through, the SAME color will bleed through. And, believe me it WILL bleed through.  Even with this awesome tape.

So, give it a quick coat of the background color and let it dry.
Step 8: Paint! 
I wanted to start with my tan color so I painted right over that tape!  You can't even see the tape in this photo but it's there.

Step 9: Peel away your tape!
This is the FUN step!  You don't need to let the paint dry for this step either.
Here you can see me pulling away the tape and below is a perfect white stripe (remember- the original background color)
Step 10:  Paint your next stripe color!

My next color was a deep brown.  Brown is one of the main colors in this room so I wanted these stripes to be big, bold and wide.  I first measured and taped off the stripes.  Then, remember to paint the edges your BACKGROUND color.  My NEW background color is my NEW tan color (not white).  Paint the edges of the green tape with Tan.  Let it dry.  Then, paint in between the lines with the BROWN paint.
Step 11:  Rinse and Repeat! 
I mean... Paint and Repeat!

Below you can see my Brown and Blue completed stripes.
Step 12: Keep adding stripes to the wall until you like the results.

I kept my BOLDEST color (orange) as my thinnest stripe.  I wanted it to be a small accent color in the room. I used the width of a DVD case as my template for the thin stripe :)  Look around. Maybe something near you would serve as a good template for a the width you are looking for.

Here is my end result:
Ta-Da!
What do you think?

 Let me show you one more Before and After shots to remind you of how far we've come.



If I can do it - you can do it!  I had never painted a stripe before this but I can tell you that there are sure to be many more stripes in my house after this day!  With the awesome results I got using Valspar paint from Lowe's and Frog Tape... the results are guaranteed to be awesome!

Perfectly straight lines that would make even my Engineer Father Proud :)

 Be sure to check out my other related blog posts:

Click HERE for information about the DETAILS of the room
Click HERE for the blog post about the Room Reveal



I was featured at Baby Lifestyles



19 comments:

Mandy Beyeler

Thanks for linking to Take-A-Look Tuesday - I featured you today!!
-- Mandy, www.SugarBeeCrafts.com

malena

The room turned out beautifully. I really like the color scheme. I know paint is the quickest way to change a room, yet I'm always hesitant to do it. The breakdown made the process less intimidating.

(I confess though I didn't quite understand Step 10. Perhaps that should be broken down into more steps.)

I appreciated the tip about the formula container. Great work.

Rebecca

Absolutely beautiful!!! All the walls in our upstairs are currently a nice, calm cream color. I think it may be time for a little color in our lives! ;^)

Anonymous

That wall looks amazing! I just featured it on my blog! :)

http://www.polishthestars.com/2011/06/link-party-monday-22.html

gail@My Repurposed Life

the stripes look awesome! I love the color combo.
thanks for linking up and linking back to catch as catch can.
"catching" you this week,
gail

theisiwayoflife {isi}

oh thx, I'll make some and ahow you the results =)

greetz from your new follower from germany

IHeart Organizing

The stripes turned out AMAZING! Love this post and your tips! Thanks so much for sharing!

xoxo,
Jen

Emily S

Wow! Very impressive, and very helpful! Thank you!

Lindsay

Wow, what a beautiful nursery! I am very impressed by your striped wall, so precise! Love it all!

I would love to have you share this @ my link party, Show & Share--

http://southernlovely.blogspot.com/2011/08/show-share-3.html

Bailey K. | Travel Heals

wow! such a beautiful nursery! thanks for posting!

Unknown

These stripes are fabulous! I did horizontal strips in my son's room along the upper part of the wall. It was a lot of work but I love how it turned out!!

Unknown

And thanks so very much for linking up to my new party! I feel somewhat like the new kid at school wondering if anyone would play with me so thanks for playing!

Christina

What a stunning outcome! Fantastic work!!!

Take care,
Christina
designingbynumbers.blogspot.com

Sawdust Girl

I Love that striped wall. Soo much work but totally worth it. It tuned out fabulous!

Unknown

The stripes look fabulous and I love your tip for using that container for paint!

- Brittany aka Pretty Handy Girl

Excellent tutorial and tips. Thanks for sharing! I'll be featuring your tutorial soon.

Brittany aka Pretty Handy Girl

Carla at Preschool Powol Packets

Nice work!! That turned out fabulous--I totally want a room with stripes now!!

the cape on the corner

love that, it's so fun! can't believe you even planned it out on the computer, now that's serious planning!

Unknown

This is actually a fantastic blogs! More of these details are superb -it is nice to see one that current.