Wall design ideas are always swimming in my head. I love painting my walls more than I love dressing myself. While a lot of women love to shop for clothes, I love to shop for paint. It’s a sickness really but my house colors make me feel happy so I enjoy it (: When I was asked to review U Stripe It‘s new paint tool, I weighed my options before writing the owner back. Remember me and Kristi promised you guys we would free up our blog of “fill” posts? We try to say yes to good opportunities that will benefit us personally AND you as our dear readers. After looking at my walls, I decided a boring white wall in the hallway would be the perfect spot to try out the stripe tool…so it was quickly transformed into an ombre accent wall!
My favorite part is that I was able to use all my random leftover paint to create this color pallet! The top coat is white, leftover from my board and batten entryway. The second coat is is my living room wall color. The third color is the fourth color with the first color mixed (got that??). The fourth color is a ‘turquoise gem’ that I got free 2 years ago!-so happy to finally use it! The 5th color is from my kitchen cabinets (if you follow us via Facebook you’ll have seen a sneak peek of those crazy cabinets, they’ll be revealed soon).
I love that the lines are perfectly straight! There was no guesswork which made this project a breeze! This is what the U-Strip It tool looks like:
The neat thing about this tool is that it’s designed to make perfectly straight lines. Not just horizontal lines like my wall but all sorts of patterns: chevron, plaid, squares, diamonds and so on. Pretty cool, right? Their site offers video tutorials which I watched beforehand. The tool comes with delicate painter’s tape and 2 sided sticky tabs so you can use it with no helpers. I used my handy hubby since he was around to hold it for me while I marked my lines but if he wasn’t home, I’m confident I could have done it without him, the tool is pretty darn easy to use.
To get started with the stripes, you should start at the top and work your way down.
This was trial and error for me as I’ve never done 5 different colors and I had a 4 hour block of time as my kiddos were in school which means I was in impatient mode (; I started off by measuring. My wall is 94″ so I divided that by 5 and ended up with 18″ stripes. I taped 18″ below the top of the wall (#1 pic) and painted that block white. Since I didn’t want to wait for each block to dry, I then jumped to the bottom and painted it dark turquoise (pic #2) and after the first block was dry, I taped the bottom line of the white block and painted the second block. I painted the 4th block (pic #3) a lighter shade of turquoise. It was at this point Sandee came over and said she didn’t like the color of the #2 block so I had to re-evaluate my color scheme. I loved block color 4 so I mixed block 4 with block 1 to get a lighter shade which created block 3. For block 2, I used the wall color on either side of this wall. Make sense? Slightly confusing. The good news is the color mess up was mine, not the tools, oopsie!
Here’s the view when you walk into my house from the garage. Since I park in there, it’s so nice to have this cheery wall greet me when I walk in!
Updated: Click HERE to see how I decorated it after it was painted, it will take you to the full post showing the pic below (:
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cara says
08/10/2012 at 9:19 amWay to go girl! Looks awesome. What a happy wall♥
Jamielyn@iheartnaptime says
08/10/2012 at 9:59 amLove this! So cute!!
Kimberly @ A Night Owl says
08/10/2012 at 10:06 amlooks SO GREAT! what a fun tool, thanks for the giveaway!
Ami Pera says
08/10/2012 at 10:21 amThis turned out amazing & is so inspiring!!
Kristin C. says
08/10/2012 at 10:27 amThis looks awesome! Love the colors =)
Theresa McCabe says
08/10/2012 at 10:30 amWOW that’s so awesome I love it 🙂 Now I want to do this in my bathroom!
Kristyn says
08/10/2012 at 11:20 amLOVE it!! Turned out awesome. Will need to come by next week to check it out. 🙂
Melanie says
08/10/2012 at 11:39 amIt looks lovely! I’m not sure if my hubby would go for this look…maybe in the play room…he is a cream colored all over kind of guy..lol I need to change his mind…
lollyjane says
08/10/2012 at 5:57 pmThanks Melanie! You need to convert your hubby to COLOR- he will love it! 🙂 Good luck!
Tausha says
08/10/2012 at 12:35 pmSo I tore a ligament in my foot and can’t do anything but lay in bed and look online. So, I think that you should fly or dive out here and paint an ombre wall for me. Or a chevron. I’m not picky or anything! What a fantastic tool! I want one and you to come the mail with it. Remember how much you love me? Pinning!!!
kristen duke photography says
08/10/2012 at 12:42 pmLOVE LOVE LOVE it!
Sandee says
08/10/2012 at 4:03 pmThat turned out awesome!!!!!!!!! Way to go creative girl 🙂
Jess says
08/10/2012 at 4:18 pmThat looks amazing! I love the colors!
Stacia@feathersandsunshine says
08/10/2012 at 7:12 pmI love this! I hope you don’t mind, I’ll be copying this idea very soon! perhaps in the same colors? Here vis TT&J
lollyjane says
08/10/2012 at 7:23 pmGirl, we’d be flattered!! Thanks for clicking over (:
XOXO
Laurel (@abubblylife) says
08/11/2012 at 6:15 amWow, this is amazing!! I love the blues, a nice calming effect! visiting via tatertots & jello
PhotogCynthia says
08/11/2012 at 10:32 amWhat a very cool idea for a wall you normally wouldn’t pay any attention to. Love the colors.
Just popping in from SITS. So glad I am because it looks like your blog is loaded with ideas!
Aramelle {One Wheeler's World} says
08/11/2012 at 10:53 amThat is such a fun pop of color at the end of your hallway. Looks great!
(Visiting from the Saturday Sharefest at SITS Girls)
Pricilla J. says
08/11/2012 at 11:32 amOMG! I love this. I get so excited when I find projects that don’t let anything go to waste (like using leftover paint). Lovely!
Stopping by from SITS : )
Laura @ Inspiration for Moms says
08/11/2012 at 5:52 pmLove the colors. Love the technique. Love the wall. Love it all. lol
Great DIY post!
Visiting from SITS.
Korrie@RedHenHome says
08/12/2012 at 2:25 pmLove this! The color scheme reminds me of a dresser I painted once 😉 I have a wall at the top of the stairs that would be fun like this…hmmm….
Shannah @ Just Us Four says
08/13/2012 at 11:48 amLOVE this! It turned out so beautifully! This is a fantastic project! Would you consider linking this up at my Pinworthy Projects Party? I hope to see you there!
Anja says
08/17/2012 at 5:44 amLooks great! Might be something I could try, too =) xo Anja
Amanda Jones (@creativendeavor) says
08/17/2012 at 7:03 pmThis wall is so fun!! What a great idea! I love it!
kim@too much time says
08/18/2012 at 5:01 pmI am just loving this! And that tool sounds seriously awesome. All that measuring and taping for lines and chevrons gives me the hives anyway and this would solve my issue:) If you have a sec I would LOVE for you to share this at my linky-Get Schooled Saturday @ Too Much Time On My Hands-it is all weekend:)
xxx
Kim
Jessica says
08/22/2012 at 4:05 amBeautifully done! I love the turquoise colors used for this accent wall. It looks great in the hallway! Have a great day!
JoeyandChase says
08/22/2012 at 6:49 amLOVE LOVE LOVE the wall. the colors. the stripes. brilliant. we are getting ready to move and I can totally see doing something like this in my daughter’s room, in shades of pink…
Emily says
08/22/2012 at 11:33 amThis wall is so pretty! Great Job! 🙂
Telisa Van Leeuwen says
01/31/2013 at 11:41 amI LOOOOOVE this!!! Thanks for visiting SugarTot, I can’t wait to do this on a wall somewhere in my house as well as your kid canvas art! You girls are amazing!
Cori says
07/22/2013 at 8:03 pmReally pretty, I love the color palette. But why is it called an “ombre” wall?
lollyjane says
07/22/2013 at 9:28 pmThanks Cori! It’s called ombre because of the effect… fading hues of the same color (;
Ra says
11/02/2013 at 3:34 pmI am going to be remodeling my room and I was curious if you have the paint codes and names for the 2nd 3rd and 4th stripe? Please email me ASAP!!!
lollyjane says
11/02/2013 at 5:45 pmThe top coat is standard contractor’s bright white. The second coat is ‘Swimming’ by Sherwin-Williams. The third color is the fourth color WITH the first color mixed: Turquoise Gem + white to lighten it up. The fourth color is ‘Turquoise Gem’ by Behr and the 5th color is ‘Caribbean Sea’ by Glidden. What a roundup of brands, lol!