A Wall of Awesome - the big reveal

Back in college, my roommate and I started a "Wall of Awesome." Basically, this was a huge white wall that we had no idea how to decorate so we solved that problem by inviting our dorm to submit "awesome." There were some simple rules for our wall: we decided what was awesome AND nothing that was once alive or is currently alive (we got a surprisingly large number of requests to post animals). Anyway, I'll have to show you what "The Wall of Awesome" looked like another time... because today is time for another kind of wall project... the first major undertaking of my life in the new apartment!

THE INSPIRATION

Mostly Sherry and John and their brilliance at Young House Love 

with some noted extra ideas from all the bloggers mentioned in my earlier post, Style through Stripes 

THE PAINT

Valspar Interior Flat Enamel in Churchill Hotel Wheat

THE PAINTERS

 

(Strikingly handsome AND handy with a paint brush. Gosh, I am lucky he loves me. This wall involved a LOT of measuring and taping.)

THE PROCESS

Supplies: 1 Gallon of the paint, one large paint roller, one small paint roller, one paint tray, one small trim brush, one edger (the greatest invention... ever), one large roll 3M painter's tape, a pencil, a yard stick, drop cloth, ladder/chairs, and a laser level (runner-up for the greatest invention ever for painters)

Measuring: Decided how many stripes I wanted - 6. Using Young House Love's formula of dividing the height of the wall by 11 (dividing the height of the wall by double the number of stripes you want minus 1)- we arrived at 9.5 in. We used a yardstick, pencil, and laser level to mark off 9.5 in. intervals all the way down the wall. Then, we used the laser level to shoot a level line across the intervals and run dashes across the length of the wall. These were our guides to place the tape. Definitely needed two people for this- one to hold the level, the other to mark.

Taping: We taped off each line, careful to place the tape above and below the marks we made depending on where our stripes were supposed to go. For example, at the top of the stripe at the bottom of the wall, we placed the tape ABOVE that line, so that we could paint the stripe below. Repeat for hours and smooth the tape as you go. Thank boyfriend for being amazingly awesome. Measuring and taping takes away 3 hours of our lives - hopefully it'll be worth it.

Painting: Fun! We used the edger on the sides of the lines (that meet the other walls) and at the very top and very bottom. An edger is the greatest tool EVER - we didn't even have to tape off the other walls - everything came out clean. For the rest, we used rollers.

Tape Removal: We did this immediately as recommended. Due to the texture of my wall, some of the lines aren't amazingly super crisp but you can only tell up close.

THE BEFORE AND AFTER (Yeah, you're excited, I know it!)

Yay! On to the next project. Have a great weekend everyone and I'd love to hear what you think of the wall!

xo Annie

Linking to:
Domestically Speaking's Power of Paint Party (1/20) 
and