Horizontally Hoping

So I've been gushing over these horizontal stripes for a few years now. I would always drool over them in photos, and just typically liked them for being so different then just vertical stripes. So I've been Horizontally Hoping (hense the title of this post) to add some to my house, but with the pending move always an option, I just couldn't find the motivation to do this project in our old apartment (which you can see HERE). So, as we have settled into our new house over the past few months, I have been dying to try them out. Here are a few photos that really got the idea stuck in my head as something that I just HAD to do :)

But it was finally coming across this photo over at younghouselove, that made me decide I have just GOTTA try this. 

Now there whole thing is subtlety. Which let me add I just LOVE. But trying to be resourceful and use paint that we already have I decided to go with a bolder option. I came across this photo, and decided to start my adventure in the dining room first. I figured it was less of a commitment and if I didn't like it, it wouldn't be that hard to fix. So here is my inspiration photo along with my before & after :

Before

Let me take a min. to introduce you to my project manager, Carter. 

I'm really glad to have him on my projects because he is so precise and detail oriented.

Not to mention such a hard worker :)

After

So with the first room a success.. well I think so (notice I did go subtle here because the lighter stripe I added was actually a paint sample left over when I was deciding which grey to paint the dining room, btw I LOVE the darker grey I went with. I will add the paint colors I did around the house on our house tour page here). So onto the bathroom it was. Let me just first say I was feeling pretty confident since the dining room only took me about an hour from start to finish, so cool. Well the bathroom was a different story. NOTE TO SELF: When you are dealing with a much older home, and no I'm not talking about one from the 1950's-70's age. We are talking old baby. Our house was built in 1846, you do the math, it's about 170 years old, YEARS. Ok so when your house is old, like mine, your ceilings, walls, and just about everything isn't exactly straight. But who are we kidding, that's what we love, and so-call character. So it took me the pretty much the whole morning trying to make my tape lines straight. Mind you in between dealing with the kids and their needs. Photo inserted here to show you what I mean :

She kept me company while I was taping, not painting :)

Anyhow, onto the bathroom reveal. I did the first floor bathroom which is right off the kitchen. Check it out :

So there is this fun little equation for this project, that can actually prove to be helpful, and not as confusing as I thought when I first read it, trust me. 

1.) Measure the whole length of the wall, from ceiling to floor (not including any moulding or trim).

2.) Then decide how many stripes you want. Multiply by 2 and subtract by 1. I wanted 6 stripes in the 

     bathroom so my equation looked like this: 6 x 2=12-1=11.

3.) Then divide the total length of the wall by the number you got from the equation in step 2. (so it 

     would look like this : my total wall height is 88.5 in. / 11 = 8.04 (I rounded to just 8 in.)).

4.) Then I grabbed a measuring tape and start measuring my wall every 8 in. making a small dot with a 

      pencil. Then connected the dots with painters tape like so:

Make sure that when putting the tape up you put it on the outside of the dots, so that the part the you aren't painting is a smaller width than the part that you are painting. That way when you take the tape off your stripes are even in widths.

Now the trick is once you have the final coat of paint on take the tape off right away. This is the best part, especially if you are like me in this area, because I can't WAIT to take the tape off =D

After

Love how it makes my star towel hooks pop out :)

And that's it. I decided to go with bold white stripes, and I'm really liking how it came out. So while I love the photos that did this subtle, I really love my new bolder stripes. 

~Still more projects to finish up over here, but as we continue in September (project month), I wanted to show you the one that I have been up to the most :)

~Have a great day =D

~BDD