The White Stripe

The baby's room is almost complete!

We started by painting the walls in one of my favorite paint colors - Benjamin Moore's Revere Pewter. In this room it does take on a bit of a taupey/warm tone, but it is a soft grey.

My goal was to decorate the nursery without spending much, so after the walls were painted I hemmed and hawed for a while about what I wanted to do. I finally decided to paint a band of white around the room to add some interest. For the white, I chose Benjamin Moore's Cloud White which is another favorite I've used in the past.

I had the husband do all of the calculating, measuring, and taping. He's good at math and I am hopeless; it's just easier if I stay out of the way of any projects that use a measuring tape. After he taped off the room, I used an old gift card to burnish the painter's tape to make sure it was well adhered to the wall.

My number one tip for achieving crisp paint lines - brush away from the tape. What I mean by that is, I place my brush right onto the painter's tape and brush over the edge toward the middle of my stripe. That way paint is always being spread away from the tape edges, and not being pushed into/under it. When I am painting the top portion of the stripe, I placed my brush onto the painter's tape at the top and brushed downward; when panting the bottom of the stripe I placed my brush on the bottom strip of painter's tape and swept upward. Once all the edges have been brushed this way, I go in with a roller to finish up the middle.

After painting the second coat, I removed the tape right away while the paint was still wet. Another little tip - pull the tape toward the wet paint. When pulling the top row of tape, I pulled downward toward the wet stripe I just painted. When pulling the lower strip of tape, I pulled upward, again toward the wet paint.

We ended up with really crisp lines and no need to touch up! I was thrilled with what an impact that little quart of paint made in the room, the stripe was just what it needed.

The furniture was purchased three years ago at The Bay, when I was pregnant with Brook. We also re-used the crib bedding; I love it and it was in perfect shape, and we were trying to do this room on the cheap.

I bought some picture frames at the local grocery store for $14 each, and then filled them with images from a Winnie The Pooh paperback that was mine as a child - it was free at the gas station when my dad pumped a tank of gas, and somehow I still had it even though the cover was falling off. Normally I feel wrong tearing apart a book, but this one was really falling apart. And come on, it came from a GAS STATION in the 90's . . . I think that fact alone gives me permission to give it a new life as artwork!

I still need to add some finishing touches and organize the closet, but it's starting to look like pulled together!