I'm almost there...I've almost painted every single room in our house. Seriously, the only rooms left are the ones with 18 foot ceilings and I think I'll leave those to the experts!
This past weekend I tackled our top floor landing/loft area. I'm still not exactly sure what I want this area to be used for but I knew it needed to be painted. The previous paint job wasn't the best and there were a few patches that needed to be repaired. Unfortunately, we had no idea what paint color was used in the landing so the only way to repair the holes and damage to the walls was to repaint the entire thing.
I've been dying to try out a new technique and decided this was the best place for it...huge horizontal stripes! The project was pretty easy - only took half a day - and it turned out better than I expected!!
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| Step 1: Paint walls lighter color |
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| Step 2: Tape out stripes |
This is the most difficult part of the project - luckily my husband was able to help. We used a level/laser pointer to determine the lines. While he held the laser pointer in place I taped as fast as I could - football was on and he was dying to get back to the game.
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| Step 3: Paint lighter color/base color around edges of tape. Step 4: Once lighter paint is dry paint darker color. |
Step 3 is crucial - this insures that you will have clean lines with no bleeding.
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| Step 5: Remove tape while paint is still damp - I waited 15 minutes after I finished painting before I pulled up the tape |
Here's the finished product!
For now I think this will be a yoga/exercise area but I'm sure that will change in a couple of months. In the year and half we've lived in this house the loft has been an office with a desk and chair and then it was a tv room. I can't seem to figure out what to use this space for - any suggestions?
~Julia
How about a nursery!! :-)
ReplyDeleteJ&E:
ReplyDelete1. Love your blog
2. Bet you didn't know I was reading it
3. THANK YOU so much for step 3. I can't tell you how many times I've used painters tape and ended up swearing I'd never use it again cause it never worked and always bled through. However, I just wanted to add a tip that I just found out using this method. Don't try it if you're using different paint finishes. I just taped off some semi-gloss trim and used your method with step 3 and then went over with my flat wall color. When I went to peel off the tape I had to be EXTREMELY careful because the heavier semi-gloss wanted to pull up from under the flat color. (Not sure if that makes sense, but I can send you some photos)
4. When can we play school again?
-Jim Koch
Hey Jim!!! I'm glad you like the blog!
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried this technique with different finishes but I'm surprised it didn't work. I googled other ways to get clean lines and HGTV suggests applying an acrylic gel medium along the edges of the tape instead of your base color - just an idea.
We can only play school if you bring some Jelly Belly jelly beans...hehehe!
Thanks! I'll try that in the next room!
ReplyDelete