HI Debra,
I have a question, I a friend of mine has just gone to Vietnam to adopt a little baby girl, her husband asked me to surprise her and do the nursery for her.
There neighbors started the project for me and did a river rock technique on the bottom and then they put the first coat of pink on the top above the chair rail, they want it to be stripes with flat and satin of the same color.. since they painted the base coat for me already, I was wondering how you do the measuring for the stripes?
Her husband said he got a 1×8 piece of wood that I could use as a guide, but its been so long since I have done stripes, I wondered what you thought about my taping and all do you use a pencil and make the lines first , then do the tape?
I want this to be perfect, just wondering your thoughts, if you get a chance can you email me back your suggestions??? thanks, Dena
Hi Dena
Isn’t this wonderful? I love this idea!!
Now… because you want the walls to just be shiny and flat stripes, this will be easier!
Several ways of “drawing” in the stripes are available:
- I use a watercolor pencil for all my drawing on walls. Because it is water soluble… it can be just washed off. That is,as long as something hasn’t been painted over it.
- Using a laser level can be extremely helpful in getting strait lines. Yes, you can get the lines to go up and down!!!
- Tape makes the job so much easier! It’s a pain to put up and take off, but the actual painting goes really fast.
- If you use tape, remember to be extra careful when removing the tape, as it can pull off “all” the paint with it and make a mess.
Instead of using a flat and shiny paint! Paint the entire wall in one finish and then do the stripes in a clear sealer with the other finish. This way you don’t have to worry about bleed under the tape… it wont show!
So what you are saying is used a clear sealer over the walls that are already painted??? do you recommend a certain tape since the walls were just apinted?
where would I get the clear sealer?????
thanks so much….
Dena Niebauer
Dena… check out this blog post that answers most of your questions… http://www.thatpainterlady.com/stop-paint-from-bleeding-through-painters-tape/
Use the blue tape with the orange inner core… It’s the least adhesive and made for “just painted” walls.
And the sealer is available at home depot or lowes . We use Polycrylic brand.
Well it seems that Dena had a few problems
“I used a watercolor pencil on the lines and then taped off the area and put on the sealer. removed the tape and it all looked great, until I then went to use a wet rag to remove the line son the wall, they arent coming off”
So these are a few more helpful tips:
I guess I didn’t explain that the water color pencil should be put on very lightly and as close to the wall color as possible. My mistake.
If it were me… I would one of two things.
1. I would have to go over all the pencil areas with kilz stain blocker to see if I could cover the bleed. This is a pain but might be necessary.
2. I might take this as an opportunity to add another tiny bit of “charm” to the stripes. Tape off the walls again… only this time tape off a “new stripe”. Right on either side of each pencil line. So now you should have an area to paint that is almost like a pin stripe.
This you can test colors for coverage. But I would use a color that matches either the pencil you used or the rock wall facing under the stripes. (isn’t that what you told me was on the wall? )
Again.. I am sorry for the misunderstanding… sometimes I think someone understands just what I am saying… and of course it clear as mud to that person.
Let me know how it turns out and send pictures!!!
Debra