diyinspiration.com

I striped these walls using painter's tape.

It looks like wallpaper, but is much more user-friendly, because you don't have to worry about seams, and you if you need wall repair done, all you have to do is touch it up with paint. 

Here's how you can stripe your walls, and the supplies you will need and/or will need to buy:

• First, test your wall area by firmly applying a piece of tape to it and pull the tape off quickly.  This will let you know if the paint is adhered tightly to the wall. If the paint does come off, or if you are painting a room a new color, make sure you use a good primer before applying a new coat of paint.  

• Decide how wide you want your stripe to be, or if you want all the stripes to be the same width.   

• Using a laser level, plumb bob, or regular level, run your first length of tape along the level line.  You can use any kind of tape, i.e., painter's tape, masking tape.  But just make sure the tape you choose won't allow the paint to bleed underneath, since this will make the lines wavy.  

• Apply the tape along the level edge, or laser level line.  I don't even use a pencil to mark the line, because this is just an extra step that isn't necessary, and the pencil mark might show through the paint or the glaze you use.  This piece of tape will now be your reference point line, until you go around the corner to get to the other wall, where you will need to re-level another piece of tape.  This is because the wall corners are usually uneven.  You may want to re-level every few stripes, just to make sure you're remaining level, especially if you are doing a really long stripe length, like down a staircase, or in a room with a cathedral ceiling. 

• Use a reference tool like a putty knife, or hand cut one out of a sturdy material, i.e., thick cardboard.  This is so you can keep the span between stripes consistent.  You can buy up to 3" tape at Lowe's, Home Depot, or your local hardware store, but if you want wider tape, you probably won't find it at your local hardware store, but will be able to find it online at Royal Design Studio.  They have 4, 6, and 12 inch tape rolls for professional faux finishers, as well as home do it yourself folks.  The tape they sell is a paper tape made by Easy Mask.  Only the edges have adhesive, since this is the only place you really need it. 

• Or, if you don't want to spend over $20 per roll of tape, or want to make your own custom combinations, you can just use a narrow width tape and tape off either end of the stripe width you want (see below for some pictures of different sized stripes). 

• Paint the inset stripe and take off the tape before the paint dries.  If you're painting narrow stripes like I show here, I recommend you use our handy paint bucket.  It makes is so much quicker and less messy.  You can buy mini rollers in many different widths at your local hardware store.  If the paint does accidentally bleed in a few spots, you can touch it up later.

• Using your reference tool as a spacer, hold it at the edge of the tape, then apply another piece of tape on the other edge of the reference tool, and work your way down the wall, keeping it at the exact distance.  Press your fingers hard against the tape edges.  Don't press all the tape down in the middle sections.  You only need to have the edges pressed down.  This will eliminate the risk of having paint coming off the wall when removing the tape.  This sometimes occurs on the edges, but can later be repaired.

On this gray and white stripe wall, I did a 5 inch gray stripe, and a 4 inch white stripe.  The walls were already painted a gray flat color, and then I taped off the gray section on either side and painted a white semi-gloss paint for a contrasting stripe effect. 

One this yellow and white  wall (in my studio), the white stripe is 12-1/2 inches and the yellow stripe is 10-1/2 inches.  The walls were painted with the white paint first, then I taped off the white and painted the yellow stripes.

This is the finish I did in my kitchen around the banquette area.  I painted all the walls the darker gold color first, as a base coat, and then taped it off using 1 inch tape; I used a glazed and bagged the muted stripe on.  After I removed the tape the 1 inch gold stripe showed through.

I only did the striping in the banquette area nook, and all the rest of the walls were topped with the faux finish glaze only.  

I also built the banquette seating area, and added the wainscoting to the back, and upholstered the seating.  I found the table in a neighbor's garbage and did a black crackle finish on the top.

Hey, check out the Bladeater® holster I invented. It has a built-in blade snapper. Snaps and eats segmented utility knife blades using only one hand. Keeps new and used blades safely contained and off the floor.