Tag Archives: stripes

Stripes in the Living Room

Stripes in the Living Room


I love stripes. I made wavy ones in my daughter’s room to match a room we saw at the Paradise Pier in Disneyland. I made stripes along the soffit in my kitchen to pull all the colors in my kitchen together. But my favorite stripes so far are the ones in my living room.

I have a large living room that is all white. It was one of the few rooms I hadn’t painted yet. I wanted to paint it, I just didn’t know what color I wanted it to be. I kept buying those little sample containers of paint at Home Depot and Lowes so I could try out several colors. One day I walked by the wall with all my paint samples on it and decided I liked all the colors!

Living room before stripes

I decided to make stripes on just one wall. I would start with the lightest color and work my way down to darker colors. After four stripes I thought the wall reminded me of something…but what? I stepped back and took a good look at my work. Then it hit me – I had just painted one of those paint sample cards!

Looks like a paint sample card!


I almost stopped right there but I decided to continue on and finish the project. After it was finished I would repaint it if I didn’t like it. But it turns out I love it! It’s bright and fun! It’s just what the room needed!

Unfortunately once I re-do something in a room it makes other things look bad. My brown couch looked terrible against the bright orange and yellow wall. I had to change it. Since buying a new couch is out of the question right now I had to work with what I had. I bought fabric at Hobby Lobby and make pillow cases for the pillows all along the back of the couch. I decided on pillow cases instead of completely sewing the pillows in their new cases so I could remove them easily if they needed to be washed. I just tuck the extra fabric behind the pillow. I bought teal blankets at Target and tucked them into the couch.

Making the stripes


Once that was done, the fireplace looked a little sad. I painted that a teal color that is similar to the couch. My 11 year old daughter made the cute painting above the fire place. Click here to see how she did it. My once blah, white living room is now bright and lively. Every time someone walks in the front door they see it and want to come in further to get a better look.

Paints I used from top to bottom:
Peach Tickle – Valspar
Butterscotch Cream – Valspar
Juicy Cantaloupe – Behr
Dragon Fire – Behr
Volcanic Blast – Behr
Fairmont Suite Clay – Valspar

Fire place – La Fonda Turquoise – Velspar

Liven Up The Living Room With Color

Liven Up The Living Room With Color

Living room before stripes


White – Every thing in this house was white when I first moved in. It has taken me a year but I’m down to two white rooms, and with any luck, they won’t be white by the end of the month.

I love color…and I love to paint. One of my sisters jokes with me that it isn’t so much that I love painting as much as it is that I’m addicted to the fumes and couldn’t stop painting if I wanted to. Another sister jokes that every year I actually lose square footage in my home because of all the layers of paint on the walls. She may be right – I’ve painted my kitchen three times since October (3 colors in 10 months).

I decided to add stripes to this room to make one of the walls really stand out. After I finish a project with stripes I always tell myself I’ll never do stripes again. But, I’m a sucker for stripes. I love them. They are really not that hard to do. It just takes time, some good painters tape, and a level.

Making the stripes

Now look how bright and colorful this room is! I love the stripes and the turquoise around he fireplace. I love the pillows (which are actually just simple pillow cases I made for the pillows that came with the couch). Instead of buying a whole new couch I bought micro-fiber blankets to cover the micro-fiber cushions. Both the pillow cases and the blankets can easily be removed at the end of the week for a good washing.

Living room after

I love when people come over to my house and see all the colors – their eyes light up and they want to walk right on in. This room makes me happy and I love that it makes other people happy too.

P.S. See that adorable dog painting above the fireplace? My 11 year old did that! Click here to see how it’s done and make one for yourself!