How to Paint Horizontal Stripes on Room Walls

Paint is a quick, inexpensive way to transform a room, but why just paint walls full of solid colors? It's not much more difficult to add details to walls, even as simple stripes. A horizontal stripe across a room can create a nice border, or you can use it to paint one color below it and one color above it so that your room is two-tone. Follow these instructions to paint a horizontal stripe.

Things You'll Need

• Paint
• Paintbrushes and Rollers
• Drop Cloth
• Level
• Ruler or Yardstick
• Low-Stick Painter's Tape
• Chalk Snapline

Instructions

1. Prepare and prime the room for painting, unless you are only painting the stripe onto an existing paint job rather than the entire wall.

2. Decide at what height you would like the strip to be. Hold a 18-inch ruler or yardstick up against that height. Hold the level horizontally against the ruler and adjust it until the ruler is level. Trace a pencil line on the wall along the ruler.

3. Get someone to help you with a chalk line. Prepare the chalk line as the package instructions advise. Have one person hold the end of the chalk line at the corner of one wall. Another person should take the chalk line dispenser and walk to the other corner of the wall.

4. Adjust the height of the chalk line until it runs perfectly along the pencil line. With each person holding the chalk line taut and tightly against the wall with a thumb, take one hand and pull out the chalk line away from the wall. Let it go, and if you are holding it taut enough, it will snap back and hit the wall, leaving a line made by chalk that is level with the pencil mark.

5. Continue making chalk lines on all the walls around the room, at the same height as on the first wall. Be sure to use a level to check that your horizontal lines are straight.

6. Create another horizontal line above or below the first, using the same method. Measure the distance of the lines to determine how fat the stripe will be. If you are making more than one stripe, you may want to keep the width uniform.

7. Tape off along the chalk lines with painter's tape. Drips and going over the lines are almost inevitable, so it is worth the extra effort because removing unwanted paint may be more difficult than taping. If you are painting the walls outside of the strip, tape along the lines with the tape on the inside of the stripe. Paint the walls outside of the stripe and remove the tape. Allow the walls to dry for at least 24 hours before continuing.

8. Tape again along the line if you are painting the inside of the stripe, only this time place the tape along the outer side of the line. If you have not painted the walls and are just painting the stripe, you might want to use primer to prepare the surface first. Allow the primer to dry, then paint on the inside of the stripe.

9. Remove the painter's tape while the paint is still wet, or it might peel off with the tape.

10. Use a small craft brush to go over the edges of the lines and carefully and correct any imperfections.

Tips & Warnings

• If you don't have anyone to help you hold the chalk line, you can put a nail in the wall and hook it on the nail. You will have to fill the nail hole with spackle, however, before you paint the wall.

• Use your level often to check your lines. It is imperative that they are straight or it will look like the room is crooked when you finished painting.