Nautical Nursery: Striped Paint Banner Tutorial

Here is the latest installment from the Nautical Nursery posts; a striped paint banner on the wall above my son's crib. I am really happy with how it turned out, now I just need to choose some letters (wood or vinyl?) to go above his crib. "Captain Jack" is courtesy of Photoshop and not his actual name, just a place holder to show you how it is supposed to look. Anyway, on with the post...

Despite a handful of painting experiences, one skill has evaded me: clean paint lines, more particularly, clean stripes. Is there anything more frustrating than peeling off the tape from a big painting project only to realize your paint dripped, or leaked through the tape ? My husband would tell you that the remedy for this is to stop reading Pottery Barn Kids Catalogs, thereby alleviating the need for stripes on your walls.

I wanted to paint a striped banner above my son's crib and I was determined to get it right. So I loitered in paint stores and interrogated paint contractors, Home Depot employees and other DIY aficionados. So with their advice and my own trial and error, I give you two gifts: Six Tips for Clean Paint Lines and The Striped Paint Banner Tutorial.

Six Tips for Clean Paint Lines

1. Use Frog Tape - I believe this bright green painter's tape possesses magical properties. I know not everyone will agree with me. Like gun control and Justin Beiber, Frog Tape is a very polarizing issue. I've heard compelling arguments for and against, but in my personal experience, it was better than the standard issue blue tape for making clean paint lines.

2. Use a laser level when placing your tape - We used this handy little laser level from Home Depot. It has a vacuum that helps it grip the wall and then it projects a pretty red laser line across the wall so that you can line your tape up perfectly straight (also, if you let your significant other buy a toy such as this, he will be more willing to help with the project).

3. Wet Your Frog Tape- after your tape is in place on the wall, run a wet cloth over the tape (this activates the sealing process which helps to prevent paint from running underneath the tape).

4. Paint Your Base Color Twice-I think this is the most important tip, and it's a bit mind boggling, so stay with me here. Let's say your painting a white wall with a grey stripe. Once you've painted your base color of white, that paint has dried, and you've taped off your lines for your grey stripe, paint the striped section white. The reason? When the paint bleeds under the tape -and it will- the bleed will be white on white- so you won't see it. Once the white paint is dry, you can paint inside your tape lines with grey and the grey is less likely to bleed since there is already dry white paint in the spots where it would seep through- make sense? I hope so.

5. Less is More - The more paint on your roller, the more likely it is to run and bleed through your tape lines, so roll it on lightly.

6. Remove Tape With Caution - After you've done all of this meticulous painting and taping, you must overcome the urge to rip the tape off the wall. Pulling quickly might pull some of the new paint right off the wall when you're dealing with stripes. So remove the tape very carefully and slowly pulling downward at an angle.

And there it is, my vast wealth of knowledge of painting stripes!

Striped Paint Banner Tutorial

Supply List

4 paint colors (for the small navy and red stripes we just used sample cans from Lowe's)

1 roll of Frog Tape (available at Lowe's)

4 Paint trays

Paint roller with 4 replacement heads

Drop cloth

Tape measure

Laser level

Pencil

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