This sad and empty, yet messy bedroom does not belong to a teenager, a college student, or someone just beginning in life. I am quite embarrassed to say it belonged to me, a married woman who had been out of college for longer than I would like to admit. I know you must be surprised that this bedroom belonged to two adults, and one of these adults, me, actually really loves design (interiors, fashion, anything DIY, pretty, or crafty). So, I finally decided to do something about it.
I kind of have an obsession with stripes. Actually, a friend of mine said I always wear clothing with stripes or chevron print. This is not a totally true statement, but it’s not too far off. When I finally decided to do an accent wall behind the headboard, naturally I chose a striped pattern. My room was already a very light gray–Behr’s Silver Drop to be exact—so, I chose one shade darker on the paint color chip for my alternating stripe, which is Dolphin Fin. I wanted a contrast, but nothing too extreme just something subtle and serene that would still make a statement. Using two colors next to each other on a paint chip gives that effect.
So, the project began. After a few hours of painting and taping, I was finished, and couldn’t have been happier with the results! The two gray colors were just contrasting enough to give it a graphic pop I love, yet still give my bedroom a calm and serene feeling I had been desiring for so long, which I was nowhere near achieving. Would you have wanted to relax in my old bedroom? Neither would I.
Unfortunately, I painted the wall before the birth of this blog so I don’t have any pictures to share of the actual process. However, I can tell you how it was done. First, don’t be intimidated. It’s super easy, but a little time consuming. So, you definitely will want to do this when you have an afternoon to devote to painting and taping.
Secondly, measure your wall, and then decide on the size of the stripe you want to paint. My wall is eight feet tall, so, I made my stripes about 8.75 inches wide, which gave me 11 stripes. Honestly, my husband helped me figure the measurements. He is handy like that. Once you have your measurements, mark them on the wall with a pencil. Make sure you place the tape outside the marks for the stripes you will be painting, but place the tape inside the marks in the negative space that you will not be painting. After you have measured and marked, it’s time to start taping.
I went to my local home improvement store and bought the best painter’s tape I could buy, which I highly recommend. You want to have the tightest seal on the wall as possible in order to keep the paint stripes from bleeding into each other. A good tape will help do the trick. Now, taping is the seriously tedious part. It took me about three hours to tape the wall because I kept measuring every couple of feet to make sure my line across the wall was completely straight– otherwise you will end up with uneven lines and all of that hard work will be down the drain. After the tape is all up the next step, and this step is very important, is to seal the edges of the tape with your original color using a brush or roller. Once that dries paint your contrasting-stripe color over it (FYI: I painted two coats of Dolphin Fin) and remove the tape while the paint is still slightly wet. You don’t want to wait until the paint has fully dried. This will give you a clean and crisp line and prevent seepage under the tape. And there you have it. One lovely striped accent wall.
I’m sure you noticed a lot more has changed beyond the striped wall; it’s practically a brand new bedroom. Be on the lookout for upcoming posts on other lovely and affordable DIY tricks you can do to update your space.
