Painting Horizontal Stripes on My Wall

I've been thinking about painting stripes all around the foyer for a looooong time.   I guess I have to credit those repeated snow storms and way too much down time and togetherness for my motivation.  

After being snowbound for several days, my husband was taking my son for baseball winter workouts.   They would be gone for several hours and I would be ALONE.  Impulsively, I decided to fill that time by painting stripes around the foyer.  I grabbed the ladder, the level, my painters' tape, tape measure, paint and paint supplies.  I moved all the furniture away from the walls and I was good to go.

I have a two-story foyer and had painted stripes in the second floor hallway and the foyer focus wall before.  I had already calculated the width of the stripes, so thank goodness I could leave the math behind and get started.

Two-Story Foyer with Stripes

I was going to continue the stripes onto the wall where I have my desk and onto the wall with the coat closets on either side of the entry to the living room.

The Next Two Walls I'll Attack

When the boys arrived home and walked through the front door, the comments went on for a while.  The condensed version was "Oh boy, we can't leave you alone for very long."
Here's what it looked like when they walked in.  This is the wall to the left of the front door.

Don't you hate having all those necessary distractions on the walls like smoke alarms, house alarms, door bells and light switches.  Magazines must photoshop them out.

Yes, I will remove the wall sconces before I begin to paint.

This is the wall to the left of the focus wall.  The doors open into the kitchen.
Those painters' tape pieces remind me not to paint that area.

Here's how it turned out.

So, did I need to do this??

Kathy




  IMPORTANT INFO WHEN PAINTING STRIPES 

 When you tape off the sections, make sure the edge of the tape is above the line you're following on the painted stripe and that the tape is on the inside of the line of the stripe you'll leave blank.  This sounds confusing, but once you start taping you'll understand.

 Always make sure to press down the edge of the tape securely before you begin to paint.  I slide the side of my thumb along the edge of the tape to press down and secure it.  A credit card or a popsicle stick would work too.  The last thing you want is paint oozing under the tape.  This is the only way to get a sharp crisp edge.

I put a piece of blue tape on my yard stick to indicate the height of the stripe.
 The measurement is much more visible and it's a time saver too.

I use a level to make sure all my lines are straight.

I put pieces of tape inside the stripes I DON'T want to paint.

Try to tape and paint the same day.
The longer the tape stays on, the harder it is to remove no matter what the manufacturer says.
When you pull off the tape, pull off in a downward direction and at an angle.
I removed the tape from each stripe as soon as I was sure it was the last coat.  If the paint dries onto the tape, you can follow the line of the tape with an exacto knife and it should pull off in a straight line without pulling paint off the wall.

I used a 1" angled brush to cut in and a foam roller to paint the area.

It takes two coats to get good coverage.  By the time I had worked my way around the walls, the paint was dry enough for me to go to the wall where I started and begin the second coat.
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If you take your time with the measuring and taping you'll have a professional result.

Have fun with it.