My DIY wall stripes!

So I started watching Craft Wars, it's "ok".... but on one show I saw a contestant, Mandi, and she had the cutest intro with a picture of a room she had redone.  I loved it so much I looked up her blog and immediately went to work on her striped walls project. 

I picked a small space, the hallway going to Sophie and Portia's rooms, but it was still overwhelming to me.  But it turned out great and I love it!

My hallway before, Cottonballs by Benjamin Moore.  Pretty boring.

A pretty small space, I thought it would be a snap.  Maybe I should tell you I'm not really a details project person.

All taped up, you can find detailed instructions at Mandi's blog.  I followed them to a T.  T is for tedious.  But I know if this is going to look nice it takes time. First I took a level and drew lines 3 in. apart down the walls, that was the worst part I think.  I hope I'm not discouraging you from trying this, I just didn't expect it to be so time consuming.  I have a new found respect for people like Mandi who do this all the time and then photograph it and blog about it.

OH and you may find like I did, that your house was built without using a level!  Not sure how the home builder did that, but I guess that's why he is no longer in business!


So you can see at the bottom of the above photo, you put on a coat of the current wall color first.  I put that coat on to keep the gray from bleeding under the tape, that's what Mandi said to do, so I did it.
Here is my gray coat below.

AND.............................................. WA LLAH!!  I love it!  Don't you?  So all the prep work was worth it.  The blue tape took off some of my original paint when I took it off and in one area a huge chunk of the gray lifted too, but I will just touch it up.

I would love to paint the wall cabinet door a hot pink or a mustard yellow, however I don't think my husband would look to kindly on that!

So now that, that is done.... I may venture into another project.  I may stencil a pattern in my half bath instead of wallpaper.  It would be much cheaper, but again very time consuming.  But I think I'll try.

So what do you think??