Earning My Stripes

A more appropriate title to this post may have been "An Idiot's Guide to Painting Wall Stripes" because this is seriously a no-frills, no-tools needed, anyone can do it approach to painting stripes.  And I must say I am beyond pleased with how painless the process was and how magnificent the results were.
You see, this wasn't my first rodeo with painting stripes.  I did some in our bathroom back when we owned our townhouse.

And while the result may look nice, the process was a royal pain in the arse.  For that attempt, I used a laser level (which I totally could not keep still) and spent 4+ hours just trying to tape off my stripes.  If you look really close, some of the stripes are bigger than others, and if you were in the actual bathroom, you could see  all of the imperfections from where the paint bled through or I mis-taped or whatever.

So, as I approached this striped wall project, wary is probably an understatement for how as I was feeling.  But I love me a stripe, so I decided to give it a go anyway.  And as I have told you, I am so glad I did because this time around couldn't have been easier.  Instead of giving you a step-by-step of how to paint stripes on your walls (because those are all over the internet and pretty self-explanatory honestly), I will tell you some of the improvements I made this time around...the tips that will make painting stripes on your walls a total breeze.

Improvement 1:  On my first go round, I decided how big I wanted my stripes (I believe 12 inches) and then went about measuring down the wall.  This time, I measured the wall first.  I had already decided I wanted 7 bold, wide stripes, so with the measurement in hand, I did some math (ok, my phone's calculator did some math) and determined that each stripe needed to be about 14.85 inches wide.  I locked my tape measure in at roughly 14.85 inches and got to work marking the seven places up the wall.  Now they're all even!

Improvement 2: This time around, I opted to skip the laser level in favor of the poor man's approach.  All I did was keep my tape measure locked and marked the wall a few times along each eventual stripe.  With my pencil marks in place, I played a little game of connect the dots with my painter's tape.  With one tape line in place, I set about measuring 14.85 inches from that one in various places to tape the next, and so on and so on (although note of caution: some measurements need to be done from the top of the tape and others from the bottom of it depending on whether you are painting that stripe or leaving it the wall color).  For me, this proved to be one billion times easier than trying to hold the laser level still or keep it still or see the laser line while I laid my tape down.  It also resulted in much straighter stripes than I had achieved with the laser level.  

all taped off and ready to paint

Improvement 3:  Enter one of my favorite products E.V.E.R.

With my tape lines in place, I brushed a thin coat of mod podge along each of the lines hoping it would prevent seeping.  And guess what?!?  It totally did.  As in flawless, completely straight, perfect lines!!!  I was so excited.

Oh, and most painting stripes tutorials will tell you to remove the tape while the paint is still wet to prevent seeping.  Well, it was clear I was going to need more than one coat of paint...actually, 3 in all, so removing my tape wasn't really an option.  I don't know if it was the miracle of mod podge or what, but again, no seeping!

Wanna see the final product?  Take a look at this perfectly striped wall:

That is the future home of our "mud room," so a lot more progress needs to be made there (and I still desperately need back my camera from the repair shop so you could get a better glimpse), but the stripes are definitely a start. Plus, I am so in love with these stripes that our new nursery is now going to have its own striped wall as well (different colors and not so broad of stripes, but same idea).  

Anybody else out there attempted to paint stripes before?  Any other tips that may help out even further?