The Power of Paint...Stripes Save the Day~

First, I wanted to start by thanking you all for your wonderful and supportive comments about my boys and their Alpha-1. I am amazed by all the brave and wonderful mothers out there in blogland who deal with similar difficulties. All three boys go for their 6 month checkups at Children's Hospital in a couple of weeks and we're hoping for good numbers on their bloodwork. Thank you for all your prayers on their behalf.

Second, my camera should be repaired within about a week and a half, and the projects have been building up like crazy around here, so look forward to bunches of new (and hopefully inspiring) posts when good old Olivia Jayne (yes, I named my camera) returns from her absence!

And now on to the decorating stuff...I shared part of this post over at Blissfully Domestic back in September, but it bears repeating so I hope you all enjoy...

This room is shared by my three boys. It is long and rather narrow. In order to create a sense that the room was wider, (so that three beds didn’t seem too overwhelming) we added this large horizontal white stripe about 2/3 of the way up the wall around the entire room. Since there is only a single stripe, it causes the eye to follow it from side to side around the room creating the illusion of width. It also gives the eye an easy resting place that is at the perfect height to display art.

In the Princess' room, the stripes serve three (yes THREE!) purposes. The first is to add “architectural” interest. At first glance, the stripes look almost like columns and create the illusion that the ceiling is higher than it is. The second purpose of the stripes is to incorporate her desire for a multicolored room. Call it creative parenting. She requested a pink, purple and blue room. The idea of these stripes was inspired by a striped grosgrain ribbon. It incorporated all of the requested colors without being unbearable. And the final purpose is to make small art pieces seem substantial. The little shadow box frames are given instant punch by placing them on the stripes. A lot of bang for the buck. And it was all painted in less than an hour!

And here's a little painting tip for stripes...once you have your stripes taped off, "seal" the tape by painting over the edges with the same color as the main wall. Let the base color dry thoroughly before painting the stripe color. This will keep the stripe color from "bleeding" under the tape and will create cleaner edges!

Now go get painting~