How to Paint Perfect Stripes

Renovations at our little pied-a-terre in the city are moving along -- albeit, at a snail's pace.  That's the problem with living in a space while you renovate.  We still don't have one. completely. finished. space. Sigh....

Well, I decided to do what any sane person would do when they are surrounded by renovation projects.  I painted stripes on my wall.  Because stripes are important.

We have this wall in our living room that was just screaming for "something".  There is a fireplace in the corner of the room, and the wall next to the fireplace just felt "blah".  I LOVE how our stripes turned out.  Here is how you can paint perfect stripes, without any paint bleeding underneath your painter's tape.

Start by marking where you want your stripes to go.  In my case, I wanted wide horizontal stripes -- each stripe is about 12 inches wide.

Next, using a long level, lightly mark the edge of each stripe.

Apply painter's tape, masking off the edge where you *don't* want paint.  As a reminder,  tape several "X"es on the stripes you will not be painting.

Now, using the background color (the color that the wall is already painted), paint over the edges of the paint to "seal" the edges.  Any paint that may bleed under the tape will match the existing paint.

Paint your stripes, using a couple of light coats of paint.

Before your paint completely dries, gently remove the painter's tape. Pull the tape down at right angles from the newly painted area.

We still have a long way to go in this space -- honestly, I've forgotten what it's like *not* to have hammers and tile samples and buckets of paint everywhere, but for now my new stripes make me happy.

Do you ever stop right in the middle of a big project, just to do a smaller project?  Sometimes, when we're doing larger renovations, it's these happy little projects that keep me sane!