How to Paint Stripes on a Wall

Easy DIY Weekend Project: How to Paint Stripes on a Wall

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I’ve wanted to paint stripes on, my daughter, Mia’s wall for the longest time. Thanks to 3MDIY.com, who sponsored this post, I was able to do so! 

Initially, I was worried about bleeding, because I have painted many walls in the past and have had issues.  Believe it or not, I managed to paint PERFECT stripes with ZERO bleeding! Woo hoo! With that said, here is my tutorial on how to paint stripes on a wall.

Before we start, here is a 90 second video I did for 3 awesome tips for painting perfect wall stripes.

Materials:

For Holes:

  • 3M Sandblaster
  • 3M Patch Plus Primer
  • Putty knife

To Paint:

  • Paint
  • Paint brush
  • Paint roller
  • Paint pan
  • Step Stool
  • ScotchBlue heavy duty non-slip drop

For Stripes:

  • ScotchBlue™™ Painter’s Tape
  • Pencil
  • Yardstick
  • Level
  • Credit Card

Protective Gear:

  • Safety glasses
  • 3M face mask

Here is Mia’s wall BEFORE.

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Instructions:

First, patch any holes using 3M Patch Plus Primerand a putty knife.  Sand the hole smooth with sand paper.  Next, using a yardstick and pencil measure the distance between stripe width across the wall.  My stripes were 13” apart on an 8’ wall.

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Use a level and a straight edge to ensure straight lines.

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Apply the ScotchBlue™™ Painter’s Tapeand create your lines, using your pencil marks as a guide.

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Use a credit card or a clean putty knife and apply pressure to the painter’s tape to ensure the tape is flush to the wall to prevent bleeding.

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Tip: When painting stripes, I marked arrows with a pencil to ensure there were no mistakes on which stripe to paint.  This helps especially if other people are helping you.

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Use a paint brush to paint the exterior of the stripes. Use a paint roller to fill in the middle of thick or wide strips.

Be sure to check out my article for when and how to use primer for DIY painting projects and furniture makeovers.

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Peel off your painter’s tape and see perfect stripes!

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Here are a couple AFTER photos.

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This post is a collaboration with 3M DIY. To keep up-to-date on projects, products and sampling visit 3MDIY.com.  Connect with 3MDIY on 3M DIY Facebook Page and 3M DIY Twitter Page!

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27 Comments

  1. Is it ok that I am JEALOUS of Mia’s room? 🙂 You did a fantastic job, Dinah! When we were painting 3M was the ONLY tape I would buy because I knew I could trust it 🙂

  2. Wow awesome idea, I literally have be researching how to’s for this for a few weeks and glade I received this post on google + to watch your video on how you created the stripes, thank you this will be great help. I do have few questions though. First, how did you determine the thickness of your stripes? Was there a formula u used to achieve this.(IM such a dorky perfectionist too) lollol. Why did you choose 13 inches? I know you said to divide the size of the wall, but will that give you the height of the stripes to fit proportioned with the length and width of the wall? And also while using the blue tape how did you run your tape against the length of the wall to keep the tape level so that the stripe stay straight, and how long did you allow the paint to dry before removing your tape?. Awesome job on your daughters wall, I know I love it and I bet she does too…

    1. Hi Natalie!

      I’m so excited you found it on G+!

      To decide on the width of the stripes, I knew I wanted them at least 12″, so I measured the height (105″) and it ended up that 13″ worked the best, with the bottom stripe at 14″. To make sure the tape was straight, I made several horizontal hash marks with a pencil all the way across the wall, 13″ apart, starting at the top. That made it easy to tape. Once the tape was up, I double checked how straight the lines were by using a level all the way across each stripe. Hope this helps!

      Let me know how it goes!

      Dinah

  3. Thank you for the great tips on how to create stripes on a wall. Next week I am starting to update my daughters room and she would like a stripe wall. The the app and the credit card idea!

    The room looks great!

    best
    Chernee

  4. Wow thanks for responding spent a few hours on your blog getting ideas LOL, I NEED some handheld mirrors and a female silhouette mirror in my room
    …so gonna have to go to Ikea

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