I have probably mentioned a half a dozen times or so that I love to paint walls in my house.  I think it is the best bang for your buck.  I know some people get nervous about the change, but paint is great because- you can paint over it if you don’t like it.  When DIY’ing, I always look at what the worst case scenario is.  If it isn’t dismemberment or death- try it!  Almost nothing is permanent or can’t be fixed.

I am trying to decide which wall I want to paint with wide vertical stripes.  It is down to a wall in Zap’s room, or the kid’s bathroom.  I might do both:)  I have seen walls painted with flat and glossy alternating stripes, and it is a pretty great way to create a dramatic effect, but still keeping the look subtle and classy.

The board and batten turned into a bigger project than we were expecting (with more sheet rock dust!) so I thought I would check into this one a bit before getting started, so there are no surprises.

If you want to paint a striped wall, here are the suggested steps (with small variations) from professionals all over the blogosphere:

1. Prime your wall with latex primer

2. Paint the base color

3. Allow to dry for 48 hours or more, to ensure that the tape doesn’t peel off the fresh coat of paint

3. Decide the width of your stripes and measure.  Use a pencil to mark the lines

4.  Use a chalk line or laser level to get nice straight lines.

5. Tape the lines.  Be sure to smooth out the tape with your finger, or another object like a putty knife to be sure the tape is nice and tight and will give you a clean line.  I always recommend Frog Tape, because in my experince, it gives a nice crisp line, if used correctly.

6. Paint the stripes.  Be sure paint the entire area (overlapping the tape).

7. Remove the tape while the 2nd coat is still wet.  This is important to get nice straight lines, without peeling any paint.