How to Stripe Walls Using Colorwash

A roll of masking tape, a bucket, your ipod all charged up and in your pocket... you're ready to go. To get started all you need is your preferred colorwash color, a bucket for mixing it, a tape measure, pencil and blue tape. Start with a white or off-white base coat of paint: Either flat, eggshell or semi-gloss.

Think about how wide you want your stripes to be (the stripes shown are 12”). Begin by measuring the wall; side to side for vertical stripes. So if the width measured is 13’ or 156”, divide it by 13 to get 12”; if you divide by 11 you would get about 14 1/4”, which would be nice too. Just be sure to divide the total width of the wall by an odd number so you will end up with an uneven amount of stripes, this way you will end up with a darker stripe on each side of the wall for balance; like bookends.

Now that you have the width of the stripe figured, grab your tape measure. For vertical stripes: From the top to bottom, 12” from the adjoining wall, measure down and make a small pencil mark on the wall and then repeat, making marks every three or so feet down the wall as if creating a “connect the dots” drawing. Then continue marking your wall every 12” all the way across.

Now, grab your blue tape and connect the dots. First tape the ceiling, baseboard and adjoining walls, by doing this first the tape for the stripes can be removed and still have the perimeter in place for the second colorwash. Second, be sure to put the tape on the side of the mark that is going to be the lighter stripe. This way when you put on your first coat it will be the size of the stripe you measured, NOT the size of the stripe minus the width of the tape. See pictures for examples.

Now run the line of low tack blue tape (1” or 1-1/2” will works well), along the pencil marks. Repeat this process top to bottom across the wall. After each stripe is taped off, in the stripe you are not going to colorwash on the first go around, put a little piece of tape to remind you not to colorwash that area. See photo, right.

Now, dilute your colorwash with water and wipe (dipping a rag into your paint mixture and wiping in between every other stripe) inside the tape lines. After the colorwashing remove tape at a 45 degree angle, let dry; then, using the same colorwash mixture, go over the whole wall, including the first layer of stripes.

This creates the striped effect - the translucent colorwash is two layers where the first stripes were applied, and a sheer single layer on the lighter stripes. A stripe is born!

You can really amaze yourself with this technique, People will come over and will not believe you did it yourself? It looks like a million dollars! Striped walls are appropriate for all rooms in the house, as well - and if you want to zip up your kitchen or bathroom with stripes, you can do that to. The taping and your first coat of colorwash should take about two and half hours.

The reason this process of one coat layered with a second coat works, is because Watercolor Walls colorwash is semi-transparent. Each layer get deeper in tone and will look more rich.

Watercolor Walls has many colors to choose from and all the instructions you have just read come with the kit.

Have fun. Because after all “Life’s too short for white walls”. See Our Colorwash Colors

"Life's too short for white walls"™ Watercolor Walls Colorwash Kits