Kylar's Nursery Project: Painted Stripes

A lot of the ideas I used for the kid's rooms in the new house came from Pinterest - I claim no originality. I really loved the clean, simple, calmness that gray stripes on a white wall provided, so I wanted to give it a shot on a couple walls for K's nursery. Here was my inspiration picture: 

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I loved how the walls remained neutral, and the pops of color came from the curtains and rug. I also loved the animal accents, but wanted to stick with a single animal. I chose frogs; they seemed like a great baby boy theme that he could also grow into as he got older. As you could see in my last post, it also made for a very cute shower theme :) I decided to keep all the furniture neutral as well with a white metal crib, a white wood changing table/dresser combo and a black chair. I'm still looking for another smaller side table to go next to the chair. At the time I'm writing this, the dresser is not completely re-assembled, so I don't have a completely updated picture. When we're done setting everything up, I'll post one. 

For this post, I just wanted to do a step by step of the painted gray stripes. If you've read any of my other posts, you know that all our walls had to painted about 5 times to get a decent starting surface. We used Kilz primer and Olympic Premium Ultra-White Zero-VOC paint, which I loved working with. The bright white gave it an extra clean feeling, which I was striving for.  

Painting one of the many coats of white onto the walls.

Next, came all the taping. This was the tricky part. I wanted exactly 12" stripes on the walls, so I had to be very careful how I taped everything off. When doing this, you need to measure 12" from inside the tape for the colored stripes, but only 10" from inside the tape for the white stripes if you're using 1" painter's tape. If you're using a different width for whatever reason, you'll have to take the extra width into account. This will make your stripes not look even when you're done taping, but the end result will be even.

I will also say that you should use either a ruler that's exactly 12" or a yardstick to measure the stripes. You'll also want to measure several times down the wall, not just at the top and bottom, or your stripes will most likely bow. This will be incredibly obvious after painting and even more difficult to fix. 

Next is a step I didn't actually do in this room, but I did in A's room, and I wished I had done it in K's as well. If you take your white (or base color of your choice) and paint the edges of your tape, it will keep the accent color from leaking under your tape. Because, let's face it, even the best painter's tape is going to leak through. We didn't have any major leaks that are in obvious places, but A's room's stripes ended up a lot cleaner. 

My wonderful hubby reaching the tops of the stripes.
I couldn't climb up the stool anymore with my
swollen ankles :) I also HIGHLY recommend this
paint pad kind of thing over a roller for this project.
Sorry I don't have a more specific name for it, but
you can get them at any major HI store.

Finally, don't wait too long to pull off the tape; you'll run the risk of peeling the paint off with the tape. I pulled the tape off the morning after I finished the touch-ups, and didn't have any peeling issues whatsoever. I really love the way it turned out :) Here's a pic in the daylight with the crib, and one with the trim I picked out as well as the finished laminate floors, which I LOVE. The lime green material in the first pic is going to be the curtains. Like I said, more pics will be uploaded as I finish putting everything together. 

My mom found this fabulous crib at
a garage sale for only $15. I'm thrilled :)

If you love this flooring as much as I
do, you can get it at Lowe's. The brand
is Swiftlock Plus. (The "plus" is very
important, I have been told.)
It's part of their in-stock inventory, and it's
called Hand Scraped Chestnut Hickory.