How to Paint Stripes on an Interior Wall
This article is similar to the earlier post on sheen striping. In this case, however, the technique was done with contrasting colors on an accent wall in a nursery. I've updated the instructions and attached additional pictures of the process.
I would characterize the difficulty of this project as medium. The painting of the stripes is no more difficult than painting an entire wall. However, the taping is more difficult.
Tools needed:
A Level (preferably 24" or longer)
A Pencil
2" Wide Painter's Tape
A roller that is slightly wider than the stripes
1) Determine the width of the stripes. This is probably mostly personal preference, but perhaps the scale of the room should be a factor. I chose 10" as a uniform stripe width, the same as in the previous article.
2) Completely paint the wall with the base color. If you intend to paint the ceiling (as I did), paint it first.
3) Once the paint is dry, begin measuring from the least conspicuous corner in the room. It is unlikely that your last stripe will measure exactly 10" (or whatever size you use), so make sure that strip ends up in the least noticeable corner of the room. If you are only striping one accent wall, measure the wall and center the stripes (the outside of each end stripe should be equidistant from its corresponding corner).
4) Using a level, measure and tape the stripes. I used 2" tape (I'll tell you why in a minute). Remember to tape the outside of the contrasting stripe. So if you went with 10" stripes and 2" tape, the exposed wall will alternate between 10" for the semi-gloss stripe and 6" for the flat stripe. This is the step most likely to cause problems, so I recommend that you eyeball the stripes one more time after you've finished taping. I put small pieces of tape inside of the stripes that should not be painted as a visual reminder.
5) Tape off the top and bottom of wall(s).
6) Paint the contrasting stripes (you may need two coats). Remember that I said to use 2" tape along the sides of the stripes? Here's why- with a 10" stripe, you can use a 12" roller and get full coverage on the stripe. The 2" tape gives you 14" to work with. The benefit of this is that there is nor risk of roller lines. On the other hand, a standard 9" roller will be 1" short.
7) I like to remove the tape shortly (around 5 minutes) after I paint. If you are working with a partner, just get a 2-3 stripe head start and have you partner remove the tape right behind you.
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I use the paint that need the most coats first so that I may not have to paint the stripes twice (or more). Aura paint by Benjamin Moore is also worth the extra money per gallon because it has such awesome coverage on even the deepest colors.