I was in one of those home improvement stores one day, and near the area where they advertise for their home interior painting classes there was a wall model with faux painted stripes on it. Now painting stripes for me has always been one of those things I was afraid to do. Hence the reason why I decided to even stop off at that bulletin board. I don’t know where it came from, but for some reason I just decided to paint the stripes on my own.

I figured I could do it with some masking tape and some great complementary shades of paint not to mention a little painting to boost. Boy was I wrong.

It’s probably not as hard as I am making it out to be, but let me start by saying that I advice people take those faux painting classes before attempting such a method in their home. I thought I knew everything so I decided to embark upon the stripe painting thing on my own. Of course, this cockiness backfired on me.

My first mistake was in not knowing how to measure. Of course I didn’t realize it until I thought I had finished the job but I didn’t take nearly enough pains to make sure that my strips were the right width. The next time I embark on some stripe painting project it is likely that I will use a couple widths’ worth of masking tape to measure a particular distance instead of using a ruler.

Another way that I messed up was not pressing the tape down far enough. The next time I go about such a project I will use a straight edge to push the edges down, but I didn’t think it was that necessary. Boy was I wrong; I didn’t press the tape edges down quite hard enough, and the darker paint bled through to lighter paint and vice versa. My lines didn’t look straight at all and the clean up work took me two to three times as long as the actual painting because I had to do it by hand. That was frustrating to say the least.

My advice to those who want to paint stripes is to take the class! Don’t be cheap, especially when your home décor is at stake. I could have hired someone to do it for the money and time I spent, but I would much rather do something myself. At least now I have a better idea of how to get it done, but hindsight is always 20/20 isn’t it? Be smart and take a class or at least get a knowledgeable friend to help. Don’t go it alone and blindly on your first time doing something like this like I did. Take your time and learn from my mistakes and you should do just fine.