Painting Vertical Stripes on Walls.

Use the painting techniques on this page to paint two tone stripes, vertically on walls. This decorative painting project works well as an accent on one wall or as a bathroom or kitchen painting ideas.

Decide on the colors for the stripes and paint the walls with the lightest of the chosen colors. To make the job easier you can use the current wall paint as one of your stripe colors and choose a darker color to paint the contrasting stripes. If you plan to paint your walls a new color be sure to let the new paint dry for a week or more before painting the stripes.

Using flat latex paint for this project will make the job easier and help to prevent peeling as you remove the masking tape. Flat paint is easier to touch up and won't form a film over the masking tape like shiny paints will. If you must use a shiny paint like semi–gloss, pull the tape before the paint can dry to minimize peeling.

Marking Wall Stripes

When you're ready, mask the ceiling and baseboards and any window or door frames before marking and taping the wall stripes. Decide on the width of the stripes. If you want the same size stripes across the wall, measure the length of the wall. Take note of the number of feet and the extra inches. Take the number of feet and divide it into the inches. Example: with a 10ft. 5in. wall, 5 divided by 10 is 0.5 inches or ½inch. Add the ½inch to one foot for 12½ inch stripes. If these stripes are too big, divide the whole thing by 2 making your stripes 6¼ inches each. Use this method to divide the stripes equally to any size you want.

If you want to use meters to mark your stripes. Find the total meters and extra centimeters of your wall. Multiply the meters by 100 and add the number of extra centimeters. Example: a wall measuring 4 meters and 40 centimeters would total 440 centimeters. For stripes 20 centimeters wide, divide 440 by 20 giving you 22 stripes across the wall. Using this method you can vary the size of your stripes to suit your room and decorating plan. When you have your stripe size mark a ruler or a piece of 1x2 with this measurement.

Using the ruler to measure, make a small pencil mark for the first stripe on the wall measuring from the corner. Use the first mark as the starting point for the next stripe. Mark all the stripes along the ceiling and then go back and mark along the baseboard, starting from the same corner.

To alternate narrow and wide stripes across the wall, use th same math as above but double the size of every alternate stripe. For example, mark your first stripe at 6¼in. and the next a 12½in. Or divide your metric total by two and then divide each half by a different number to get two different sized stripes. Mark your ruler or stick with both stripe widths and alternate the two across the wall. To be sure the marks along the ceiling and baseboard line up, be sure to start both runs from the same corner.

Masking the Stripes

Use painter's masking tape (usually blue or green) to mask the stripes. Use one continuous piece of tape to join the ceiling and baseboard marks. Apply the tape so that two pencil marks are visible within the same stripe to be sure that all marks are covered with the darker paint color.

Tape each stripe, gently pressing the tape over fresh paint to minimize peeling.

Fold newspaper to be a little smaller than the width of each alternate stripe and tape it to the wall tape. Paint the exposed stripes with the accent color covering the pencil marks and the lighter paint color. Use a sausage roller and work the paint into it well before applying paint to the wall. Avoid using a thick coat of paint over the tape to minimize peeling. Use two coats if necessary for good coverage waiting 30 minutes to an hour between coats. If you used flat paint, let the final coat dry for about an hour and pull the wall tape and newspaper off slowly. If you used semi–gloss or eggshell it's better to pull the tape off before the paint can dry.