Lately, I’m crazy about painted stripes as a wall accent. I just love them.

Yes, I know that if we sell this house someday down the road, buyers might hate them and I’ll have to just paint over them, but I refuse to live in a basic home until that day comes. I don’t want to fix up and decorate our house the way potential buyers might want it. I want it the way WE want it.

(And by “we,” here, I sort of mean, myself, because Hubs could take or leave the stripes either way I think.) I want them everywhere in our house, but they are a little much in large quantities so I have contained my enthusiasm and spaced them out in only 2 rooms so far.

So, I decided to do the walls in my office with a vertical stripe. Unlike in the kitchen, where we did horizontal stripes.

Also, I should note that I wanted perfectly striped walls, none of that bleed through that happens when you use painter’s tape around window sills and door frames and don’t get it pushed down all the way. Messy paint is not something I can live with it. It just bothers me so much for some reason. I don’t have the money for therapy so I just make sure all my paint jobs are as neat as possible.

1. The first step in the process is to paint the wall a solid color, one of the colors you want in your stripe. If you already have the wall painted, you can skip this step, but it’s worth mentioning that the paint NEEDS to be completely dry before starting this project. Let this original wall color dry overnight before taping on it. Trust me.

2 Planning. Choosing which way to paint the stripes is actually a very important step in the project, so consider your options wisely.

For instance, in the kitchen, we had to paint the baseboard trim on the wall, so doing vertical stripes would mean more cutting-in by hand because I’d have to redo the nice edge I already had down there on top of the trim for each stripe. Horizontal stripes would be easier because I could leave the bottom and top edge alone if I left them the original wall color, thus, reducing the amount of time we spent cutting in. Another benefit of horizontal stripes in the kitchen was not having to work around the doorway when we were planning how thick the stripes should be.

Hubs is a math guy, so he measured the room and divided it by the number of stripes I wanted to get the width. In the kitchen, before we switched to horizontal stripes, the doorway caused a problem because it didn’t fall exactly on where the edge of stripe should be, making it look, just “not right” in the picture of how I wanted it to end up. If that sort of thing doesn’t bother you, go right ahead. You could also go with random widths if that’s the look you were going for, and then math wouldn’t be needed at all!

Anyway, since we didn’t like any of the options with the vertical stripes, we went back to horizontal. Of course, the reason I thought I wanted vertical stripes is because I was only striping one wall and didn’t think I’d like the look of the stripes just stopping in the corner of the room. Then I saw a picture online of horizontal stripes that stopped in the corner, and I realized it actually looked just fine so the issue was settled.

For horizontal stripes, just measure the height of the room and divide by the number of stripes you want. You can adjust if that width seems too big or too small. I knew I wanted mine to be pretty big stripes to avoid making a not-huge-room look smaller.

For the vertical stripes, just measure the length of the room and divide by the number of stripes you want. Again, adjust as needed. Now, for the office, we went with two different stripe widths, for fun, and because Hubs thought it would look good. Which it did.

3. Measure. Now it’s time for the not-fun part, at least in my opinion. Working together, we used a tape measure and a pencil to mark spots at several points along each stripe.

4. Then, we used a chalk line (awesome for this! I’d suggest you use it!) to mark all the way along. Chalk lines are so fun!

We also used a rather creative straight edge/cardboard folder for the spot where the chalk line wouldn’t work.

5. Before you start taping, make sure to dust/wipe any major excess chalk away. Then, just tape all the way along each line, pressing it firmly to the wall. We used the good stuff, the Scotch Blue Painter’s Tape, and had great luck with it, so we’d recommend it and not a cheaper kind. It’s a little pricey, and has a strangely odd yet somehow familiar smell I agonized over trying to remember exactly where I had smelled it before. (If you know–maybe rubber cement?–please tell me in the comments below!)

Of course, in the office, I ran out of tape right at the bottom of the last stripe.

So I had to use regular masking tape. If you do that, just be careful to not stick it down quite as hard because it could peel the paint up.

6. Now, the secret, magic step to getting smooth painted lines: Seal the tape.

I read online that you can use clear paintable caulk, or a clear coat of paint, but why? We found that just quickly going over the tape lines with the original wall color will seal them perfectly. Keep in mind you only need to seal the side you’ll be painting over with your second color. Also, we used a pretty dry brush so it didn’t take forever to dry.

I’m telling you. DON’T SKIP THIS STEP. It seriously makes all the different between smooth lines and having icky bleed-through under the tape all along your stripe.

7. Now, paint the second color over the base color. Do this as quickly as you can, but be neat! Don’t accidentally roll over the edge of the tape that you don’t want painted! (Ahem…Hubs…cough,cough)

Just kidding. I did it too, a little bit, when I was touching it up with the brush.

Then, the fun part!

8. Remove the tape. Do this while the paint is still wet because if it dries, it might be connected to the paint on the wall and then peel it off, which would be a big shame since we were just so careful to not let any paint seep under in our attempt to have perfectly smooth lines.

Now, here you can see perfect lines, but also chalk residue. It will wipe off, but it’s easier to wipe off before the tape and paint gt it really stuck down to the wall, so take my advice and wipe off that extra residue before you paint, okay?

And there you have it! Perfectly smooth striped walls!

Oh, and for the kitchen, we painted over the outlets on the wall first, as you can see here, but then replaced then anyway later. If you do want to paint over them and stripe happens to go right through, it’s okay! It won’t hurt the plug and you can just carefully roll it on to avoid getting paint in the actual holes.

Oh, and why yes, I was a junior cheerleader in second grade. And yes, this is still my paint shirt. And yes, I realize that was almost 15 years ago and I still have the shirt. Don’t judge. It’s full of paint memories.

Let me know if you try this and how it turns out! Do you have other tips that work for you? Had you heard the trick about sealing the tape?