I know, I forgot about you again... Forgive me?
I can't make any promises it won't happen again but I'm here now and that's what counts. Right?
Moving on...
My wonderful, think ahead husband purchased a house a few years back, before we were anything, when he was still a bachelor. This meant when we wed I was able to move directly into said house instead of an apartment. Hooray! However, since he purchased this home (as a bachelor) as well as all the furnishings (as a bachelor) our new home was very much, well, a bachelor pad. His mom and sister did what they could, not one plain white wall in the entire house (Victory!) as well as a few pictures and decor items scattered around (very few). Their efforts made my job of making this house a home slightly less daunting. (Thank you!!) But in true bachelor fashion the sectional and oversized TV took priority in the front room.
Over the last year I've made slow progress in turning our home from "bachelor pad" to "family home".
A new kitchen table, some pictures of us on the walls and tables, a candle here or there, new bedspread, valences in the kitchen... but my goal from the time we were engaged was to move the sectional and TV to the basement, make him a mancave (it's totally finished, I wasn't demoting him to some literal cave. don't worry!). Then I could make the front room an actual living room, sans ginormous TV.
Since I started working part time again we agreed to put my first couple paychecks toward new furniture for the front room. Lucas was finally convinced to move the sectional and TV to the basement. Yeah!
New problem... Our new lovely furniture was grey, the room was very much browns and tans.
So, the only logical solution was to paint. =)
After many trips to many paint stores (and a very patient, colorblind husband humoring me) we finally settled on the colors for our walls. And I only changed my mind once... Or twice. =)
The colors->
Olympus-Treasure Isle in eggshell (lighter chevron)
Olympus- Carlisle in satin (darker chevron)
Valspar- Woodlawn Colonial Grey (three other walls, I know you can't see much of it in the pics)
*Note: I didn't want a huge contrast in chevron so we used paint only one shade off from each other. We then got the lighter in eggshell finish and the darker in satin (as was recommended by the oh so smart Lowes employee). This helped make sure the two colors didn't blend together so much.
Also, you will not need as much paint as you think... We got a whole gallon of the "accent" color and have more than 3/4 of it left over.
**and now we are finally to the topic of this post, thanks for your patience**
Our chevron wall.
I looked up numerous tutorials and took tips from each one. This tutorial was the most helpful.
But here's how I did it...
I began by deciding on the chevron design on a small scale. The width of the stripe, angle of each point, etc.
I then use some math (see, you do use it later in life) to figure out my pattern on a larger scale. I knew I wanted 10 inch stripes. My drawing had 1 inch stripes so I took everything times 10 (this kept everything much more simple).
We first painted the entire wall the lighter color of the two.
The next step was to tape everything out on my wall, this was the time consuming part. Make sure you have LOTS of patience!
I knew everything would have to be exactly straight or it would drive me crazy. Most of the tutorials used an all-in-one ruler/level. I had a level but it had no ruler markings, so I made my own.
I started in the center of my wall to be sure it all came out even and marked it with one dot of my pencil.
I then measured vertically up and down the wall, 10 inches at a time making sure to keep everything level.
Then from my center dot I measured over 12 1/2 inches and down 7 1/2 inches ( I suppose I could have figured out what the angle was but this seemed easier in my mind). From that dot I once again measured vertically in 10 inch increments up and down my wall. I now had half of my first chevron. Hooray!
Now just keep on measuring and dotting until you've covered the whole wall.
Once all the dots were on my wall the next step was taping everything out.
TIPS when taping:
-Use Frog tape!!! It doesn't leak paint under it and keeps your lines crisp.
-As you're taping, keep in mind that you must tape "inside" the unpainted portions of your wall. In other words, I needed to leave a full 10" of real estate open for the sections I was painting, and the sections I wasn't painting, they basically had 2" of tape and 8" of protected territory.
-Use a razor or exacto knife to clean up the points. I stuck the tape scraps on the lines I wasn't painting to help me remember which ones not to paint later on.
Here's my wall after 7 hours of measuring and taping.
Make sure to take your time, don't rush it. You will be much happier in the end. Lucas actually got the other three walls in the room painted twice in the time it took me to tape this.
Now the fun part, PAINTING it all. I used a small roller so I could be a little more precise and less likely to paint over the lines (I did in a couple places which I touched up later, it's ok).
After two coats of the darker color, letting it dry for 24 hours and peeling all that tape off the wall here's the finished product!
I'm so happy with the finished product! Though I'm not sure I'll ever do it again. ;)
Now my next project is curtains in the room.
