Painting Stripes on Textured Walls- A Tutorial

If I could have re-textured all the walls in my 1970’s home before we moved in, I would have… but that was an undertaking I was not interested in doing myself or paying someone.  So, I’m stuck with texture that looks like it was done with a mop.  Anyone else have the same problem?  Well, I love stripes and unfortunately, mop texture walls aren’t very helpful.  HGTV would tell you to tape off the stripes and paint in-between.  Well, if you have tried it, the tape won’t lay flat and you get drips behind the tape.  Take my word for it.   Look at those straight lines- pretty awesome right?  So, here’s what I did.  Get a really long level and a pen.  Measure down from the ceiling however far you want the top of the stripe.  Make a dot then move down and measure again and make another dot.  Then using the level draw a line between the dots.  The level is important because your ceiling might not always be level.  Keep going, as long as you want the stripe. 

Here’s the kicker- the part where some of you are going to click the X at the top right of your screen.  “That girl is Crazy”.  Once you draw the lines for the stripes, you have to fill them in… freehand.  You can do it.  Small brush, go slow, put enough paint on your brush. 

Here’s a trick I learned on the 3rd stripe.  Draw the lines with a sharpie in the color of paint you are using (if available).  It gives you a bit of grace trying to paint straight.  For me, a thick black line really helped.  

 

 

Because I’m a glutton for punishment I did it again in another room- more stripes.  This time we did it a little differently.  We measured for the lines then used a chalkline to get the line all the way across the wall (would have worked a lot better if the wall was straight!).  Then I painted by hand the color stripes.  The good thing is the chalkline is a very quick way of getting a line across a long distance.  The bad thing is it’s blue… and a bit messy.  When using the white paint right next to it I was getting some chalk flakes mixed with the white paint. 

And it’s a little hard to get the chalk off too.  BUT depending on your wall color and how you want the stripes- it might be the better method.

I’m very sorry I did not have some great wisdom for stripes on textured walls.  Good Luck and have fun!