Wednesday, September 10, 2008

I love a good stripe...

::sigh:: new homes are a lot of work. This week I have really been focusing on getting my new place looking nice and filling in the gaps where I felt design was lacking. I wanted to do stripes somewhere in this new home and I finally found the perfect place.

I loved the idea of the Ralph Lauren "candlelight" and decided to give it a go. My foyer was a little light in color for my liking, but I didn't want to add color since there is plenty of it in the adjoining room. Using a yard long level I spaced the stripes out to adequately frame in the art I have on the walls in the space. I taped them off using my favorite, frog tape. I painted on the candlelight, which is just a glaze and was seriously BORED. I think it would look great on a darker color where you could actually see the lighter contrast of the iridescent glaze but if you are looking to see the stripes, don't try this on light walls.

I decided to mix a custom color with the paint I had on hand to make tonal stripes instead of the candlelight. I took the greyish brown color I used in my bathrooms upstairs (color matched to Valspar "siene") and mixed it with the basic beige I used in most of the house, which is also the color in the foyer. Adding just the slightest amount of "siene" I created a color that made a tonal stripe that would add interest but wasn't so much of a contrast that it overwhelmed the small space. I am pretty happy with the result. I didn't mix enough of my own custom color to paint the wall the door is on, so that is my next project!


Shawna

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The stripes look great! Good job!

Cammie said...

We decorated last year with the same stripping idea. However we did do it with light paint, and varnish (glaze didn't give the effect I was looking for). As you enter the room it looks like it's a solid color, but once you're in the room you realize it has very subtle stripes. Great response from first time guests as you will see.