When house painting in Pleasant Hill, CA, you do not have to limit yourself to painting plain and solid colors on your walls. While these colors surely look neat, a lot of people are looking for other aesthetic designs, which include the incorporation of stripes on walls. Stripes can be painted on walls in diverse ways. They can be horizontal or vertical, subtle, or bold, symmetrical, or mixed. They are also great if you are on a budget but want to make your room more stylish.
However, painting stripes on walls is not as easy as some people may think. In fact, doing it is often tricky. Most people feel frustrated when it comes to measuring, designing, and preparing the surfaces for stripe painting. And it is more difficult to paint stripes on textured walls. It is truly disappointing when you peel off the tape and find dreaded uneven lines, considering the effort you’ve given to the task.
Hiring a professional painting company like Custom Painting, Inc. is a great option if you want your walls to be painted with stripes, as they can ensure a beautiful outcome. In this article, we are going to provide you with ideas on how to paint crisp stripes on your walls.
Where to Paint Stripes in Your Home
Before we give you tips on how to paint crisp stripes on walls, we will first give you ideas on what areas of your home stripe designs are best to be incorporated. It’s because stripes, in addition to their aesthetic appeal, can also help enhance the ambiance and feel of certain rooms. Below are some examples:
Bathrooms
If your bathroom at home is compact, painting the walls with horizontal stripes can give it the feeling of having more space. Vertical stripes, on the other hand, can help lift a low ceiling, making the bathroom feel more expansive than it really is.
Small Bedrooms or Nursery
If you are having a baby, you might also be transforming a small bedroom into a nursery. With this, it is also a good idea to paint stripes on a single wall. Doing so will make the room feel larger. It is also important to use colors that you have set your mind on for the room’s decorations. Adding a striped wall in a nursery or children’s bedroom is also a fun way to introduce color to your kids and add a playful touch to the room without being overpowering.
Living Rooms and Dining Rooms
Stripes can also work well in living rooms and dining rooms. In fact, they look good on any wall in any room. But if you are going to the effort of painting stripes on the wall, you need to ensure that you do an excellent job. Aside from visually lifting a low ceiling or making a narrow room appear bigger, painting stripes also helps in disguising an ugly feature by catching your attention and fooling the eye into overlooking faults.
Things to Do Before Painting Stripes on Your Walls
If you’ve decided that you want to incorporate stripes on the walls in your home, it is important to visualize and create a plan first before you get to work. To make the process more streamlined, determine the layout and coordinating colors first.
Plan your stripe layout.
If you want a simple two-color stripe pattern with a uniform stripe thickness for your walls, it is easy to plan the layout for it. You just need to measure the height of your wall for horizontal stripes or the width for vertical stripes. Take the measurement and divide it by an odd number to represent the number of stripes. Using an odd number will ensure that the top and bottom stripes of the wall will be the same color.
This equation will show the thickness of the stripes. You can increase or decrease the number of stripes until you find the thickness that you want. For instance, if your wall is 95 inches, dividing it by 19 will give you 19 5-inch stripes. For best results, it is a good idea to keep the stripes between 4 to 10 inches.
If you choose vertical stripes (given that they’re painted in the right size and width), they will make your room appear taller than it really is. Plus, vertical stripes add dimension to your space.
If you opt for horizontal stripes, they will emphasize the width of your room by making it look bigger. Thus, your room will appear wider and more spacious than it actually is. Horizontal stripes also reduce the height of your room.
Diagonal stripes are more complicated than both vertical and horizontal stripe, but they undoubtedly add more interest to your walls. Stripes can be applied on the entire wall, but it is more ideal on accent walls. Diagonal stripes can create an illusion of movement.
Pick the right colors.
It’s always a safe choice when you paint stripes whose color is just a few shades away from your current wall color. Their stripes can be either lighter or darker than the wall color. Stripes with light colors make your room more elegant and modest. They also give the illusion of space, especially in a smaller room. Stripes with deeper colors, on the other hand, are ideal if you want to make your spacious room seem more enclosed and snugger. Deep colors also add drama to the room.
Keep in mind that using highly contrasting colors is considered a risk. Well-placed lines of contrasting colors will make a strong statement in an effective way. Be careful, however, to be sure your room doesn’t end up looking like a circus tent.
Prepare your tools and materials.
When it comes to painting stripes on walls, there are important tools and materials that you need to have. These include:
- Measuring tape
- Paint brush
- Pencil
- Drywall knife
- Razor knife
- 4’ level
- Stepladder
- Small paint roller
- Assorted painting supplies
- Paint in two or more coordinating colors
- Painter’s tape
How to Paint Stripes on a Wall
Below are some of the steps that you can follow to paint stripes on a wall:
1. Paint the Wall
You can start by painting the entire room first and let it dry for an appropriate amount of time, depending on the type of paint used. Oil-based paints take more time to dry than water-based paints. You may add as many coats as needed for ample coverage.
2. Measure and Layout the Stripes
The next step is to measure and lay out the stripes. You may use the measurement technique we discussed earlier. If you choose to do vertical stripes, the ideal width would be about six inches. You can adjust the width according to your preference. For horizontal stripes, the optimal width is about twelve inches.
3. Mark the Stripes
Mark the position of the stripes with a measuring tape and a pencil. Draw the whole stripe using a level as a straight edge. If you have a laser level, it can make the process easier.
4. Tape the Wall
Use a good-quality blue masking tape to lay out your lines. You can start by taping off the edge of the ceiling and any woodwork, outlets, and trim. After that, place the painter’s tape on the pencil line and ensure that the tape is on the correct side of the line to make the stripes even. Remember to press the tape down firmly on the surface to keep paint from seeping underneath the edges.
5. Paint the Stripes
Using a foam brush, apply the base color in gentle dabs along the edge of the tape. What you are doing is to let a little amount of paint seep under the masking tape. Once the base paint dries, it seals the line, so when the secondary color is applied, it won’t leak through. Allow the base paint to dry completely. Next, apply the secondary color inside the tape lines.
6. Pull the Tape
Before letting the secondary paint dry, carefully, and gently peel off the tape. The longer the tape is on the wall, the more likely it will peel the paint off when you remove it. This is true, particularly when the paint is overlapping the tape.
Painting crisp lines can be tricky at first, but if you follow the proper steps of doing it, you will have perfect lines that may radically enhance the look of your room. Crisp, straight lines are what make house painting in Pleasant Hill, CA, more challenging, but at the same time, it is also very rewarding. If you need help with painting stripes on your wall or other painting tasks, do not hesitate to contact Custom Painting, Inc. You may reach us at (925)294-8062 to schedule an appointment for all your painting needs.
