Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Stripes make EVERYTHING better...right?

I dont know why, but over the weekend, I started thinking that it might be nice to paint some stripes on the wall that runs along the east side of our living room. Give it some movement and interest. Make it more fun, maybe.

See? It's boring right now. Blah.
Oh! I remember where I came up with the idea! I was watching Color Correction on HGTV, and they painted some great, big neutral stripes in this woman's office, to tone down the gawdawful orange color she'd tried painting in there herself. (Why people don't understand that you don't have to paint the whole space the color in order to get benefits from it in the form of maybe an accent piece or two or three is beyond me...)

Anywho, they looked something like this:
Found that over at Apartment Therapy via a google search for stripes. I love, love, love the space, but I think its a bit too spare for my lifestyle. The stripes, however, are right up my alley.
I think I'd prefer to have a couple of different colors, though. More like this:
Wheee! I just love that look. So warm an inviting and a perfect mix of the modern with the traditional, IMO. I think that's a wallpaper, but the pattern could be simulated easily with paint. Especially if only doing it on one wall. I don't want to make my husband crazy with this project! I'm enough already in that regard, I think.

This subtle variation of shades is a nice idea as well...
Not necesarily into the colors on that one (found via the Painted House website, episode specifically concerning an Ice Hotel-Inspired house...um, no thank you), but the pattern and the idea of the subtlety is what I liked about it.

I can't wait for spring now!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

OH YEAH - like the subtleness of that last pic - not the color though. i've seen where they've done stripes with the same color of paint - but different finishes (flat/satin/glossy) really subtle but gave some interesting depth to the space. i'm to chicken to ask my husband to do that though...so much taping off! haaa!

Jennifer said...

You know what? I think that when you're doing the same color, but in different finishes, the taping off isn't nearly as hard/terrible as when you're doing different color stripes. We learned the hard way when we did the stripe in the bedroom. But at least we learned! :D And at least it was just minor taping involved. I can't imagine doing a bunch of small stripes...which is one of the reasons why the wider stripes appeal to me, I think.

Also, keeping it to one wall will hopefully keep the complaining down to a minimum. We'll see...

Anonymous said...

OK, the pic with the 2 white stripes is OK but I would say the subtle idea at the bottom is the best. The multicolor stripe thing would make me crazy after a few days.

N}:-

Stephanie said...

I love the stripes idea. I especially love when they do the subtle shade variation and use a matte finish for one color and a glossy for the other. That's really cool, but I also like the contrasting ones...

Anonymous said...

Good to see such nice designs. space management is quite good ,especially stripes.

Linda