How to Paint Stripes on Furniture {A Tutorial}

I’ve painted stripes on my walls over the years and loved them. One day it hit me, I can paint stripes on anything I want! There are great tutorials on many blogs with instructions on how to paint them on walls, fabric and even ceilings. I love the look of stripes so much, I’ve been painting them on furniture lately too!

Painting stripes is not hard! It’s actually really easy, but it can get confusing (really fast) if you aren’t paying attention to the measurements and how you are taping off the stripes. I hope this tutorial is helpful to you!

For Christmas I gave my mom a hutch and desk makeover, I was finally able to finish it just this month – good thing she’s been patient! I’ll let you see then entire project in my posts this week and the big reveal on Friday.

{Before Desk}

Step #1: Prime and paint furniture (since this a tutorial on stripes I’ll skip the beginning of the process).

Step #2: Measure the full width of the piece. Mark the center, decide how wide you want the stripes (I did 4 inches), and mark them off starting from the center and moving out to the sides (I use chalk to mark the lines before I tape).

TIP: I like to measure my stripes starting from the center (the focal point), that way as I get to the sides of the piece the last stripes can be smaller.  It’s a good idea to measure out different widths of stripes to get an idea of what you will have on the edge (sometimes it works out perfect to have the same size stripes all across )but not often.

Step #3: Using painting tape (don’t go cheap on this step, cheap tape will pull up the paint), a ruler and chalk, make stripes with the tape all the way across.

 TIP: Wax the furniture before taping the stripes, it helps keep the paint from pulling off while removing it. Also, rub your finger along the side where the stripe will be painted to seal it, no need to seal along the side of the stripe you are not painting.

Step #4: As you measure the stripes, use chalk to mark which color each stripe will be. If you notice, the stripes don’t look even when they are taped – you have to account for the width of the tape within each stripe.

TIP: Mark  each color on your piece of furniture as you go. It can be easy to paint your stripe in the wrong spot. I know this sounds like an unnecessary step, but believe me while you are painting you will be glad you did!

Step #5: Carefully remove tape immediately after painting stripes (I did 2 coats).

Whala – We have stripes (notice the smaller stripes on the end)!

To finish the desk I also painted the drawers green – love this color!

Last, I used Annie Sloan Dark Wax to give it an aged look. To see how I used the wax check out this tutorial from a sideboard done by friend Jerra on a guest feature. Click HERE.

{After Desk}

Stay tuned this week for the complete make-over, there’s more to come!

Love  you more than cool stripes, 

Sunday