The Secret to Stripe Sanity

I promised you a how-to post on my striped entryway here. To those of you who made the pinky promise to come back and hear my secrets, thanks for being patient!

Here are the two secrets to my sanity:

Yes, a credit card.

and

Who knew this product had so many functions?!

Ready for the nitty gritty details? First things first...the math, oh the math. I'm not going to lie, I stink at math! If I can have someone do the calculations for me, I will. When I decided to paint my stripes, I saw this project as a mind over matter thing. I was out to prove something and I didn't want to ask for help (this time, at least). You see, I was in a horrible mood and I knew if I brought my husband in to help, I'd probably bite his head off. Poor soul, he totally wouldn't have deserved it either. Does he ever? Anyway, I digress. 


Back to the stripes. I measured the walls then divided the space by the number of stripes I was hoping to end up with. I knew I wanted the top stripe and the bottom stripe to both be the same color, so I made sure the dividing number was an odd number. I like the uniform look. This might or might not matter to you, it's a personal preference. Once I cried and growled figured out the size my stripes needed to be, I locked the tape measurer into that position. Then I painstakingly placed it on the wall and made a tiny pencil mark, over and over and over again in a horizontal manner. Time to break out the painter's tape. I used each of these tiny marks to line up the tape and keep my stripe from being all womperjawed. Now move up the wall and repeat this step. Continue until you have all your stripes marked. This is what it will look like at this point.

Did you notice the white strips of paper on every other stripe? This is how I reminded myself which stripes were going to be the lighter color. Also, to make that math thing even more confusing, I realized that the width of the painter's tape needs to be taken into account and be placed in the darker of the stripes. This probably doesn't make much sense until you start taping off your project. This next step is where the credit card comes into play. Take the edge of your card and press with all your might along the edge of the tape. Go back and forth and really get the tape into the crevices of the texture on the wall. This is time-consuming but totally worth it. The paint will have less of a chance of seeping through if the tape is pressed to wall as tight at possible. 


Next step...Modge Podge. Use a foam brush to paint over the edge of the tape, like so...

It'll go on white but dry clear. Genius I tell ya! It can do all the bleeding it wants and you won't be able to see it. This will create the sealant that will prevent your paint color from leaving those ugly, unsightly jagged edges. I gave the Modge Podge a little time to dry then proceeded with the paint. I worked on one stripe at a time. As soon as I finished a stripe, I removed the tape. If you let the paint dry completely, the chances of bleeding are increased.

So, that's pretty much it. It was HARD, but totally worth it! Let's enjoy some before and after shots, shall we?

BEFORE:

              

AFTER:

So friends, are you ready to paint your own? Go forth and be brave, and make sure you leave me a comment or two to let me know if you used these handy little tricks!

Linking to the following sites:
DIY by Design                      The Shabby Creek Cottage
Someday Crafts                     At The Picket Fence
Trendy Treehouse                 The Shabby Nest
Blue Cricket Design              504 Main
House of Hepworths             Fingerprints on the Fridge
Project Queen