March House Project - Chevron

The last weekend in March I tackled a project I had Pinned a while back, a Chevron wall. Here was my original inspiration:

The basic instructions were to use a chalk line to create a grid on the wall. Then use tape to mark off the chevron stripes. Easy enough.

The previous owners of our house had already taken the doors off of the closet in the room I've claimed as my craft room. The whole room had been painted the same light pink as in the closet.

The first step was taking down the wire shelving they had and filling in those holes.

Then it was time to paint it a base coat of white. Unfortunately even this light pink was impossible to cover, it took three coats of white to cover.

I had drawn on paper to figure out dimensions for the grid. I had decided to go with longer stripes, so I marked off 18 inches along the top and bottom and 12 inches down the sides. It was then time to get out the chalk line to set up the grid. I had help to snap the chalk line and the tape off the stripes.

You can see the grid lines best in this picture

After getting the grid on the wall it was time to tape it off. This part was time consuming, trying to get everything lined up just right and trying to keep up with which pieces when on the inside or outside of the lines to create even width accent stripes. The wide sections would get painted, the narrow ones stayed white, once the tape came off, they would all be the same size. We ended up with this:

I put smaller pieces in the sections that would not get painted

I had left over coral paint from my pantry project, so that is what would become the accent color. 

Even after I had started painting, I hadn't decided whether I would continue the stripes around to the sides of the closet or not. After getting the center park filled in, I realized it'd look best to continue them around. 

I wish I had thought to tape that part off before I put the accent color on the wall, it was so tedious to get the tape just right on the narrow side walls. I wanted to hurry up and get those taped off and get a second coat of coral on the wall so I could take the tape off when it was still wet.

Once I started taking the tape off I was freaking out about how well it was turning out. I half expected this to be a complete fail and was prepared to just paint over the whole thing when it turned out awful. With each piece of tape I took off the lines were crisp and exactly how I imagined.

I was absolutely thrilled with how this turned out. I had very little touch up to do once the tape came off. I think taking the tape off pretty soon after putting the second coat on the wall helped to keep the lines so crisp. Also, before painting I went over the tape three or four times with my thumb to make sure it was pressed down and completely sealed.

It was a tedious project, several coats of white just to cover the existing color. Then waiting a day for that to really dry before I put the tape up. On the day of taping and painting the stripes, it was a solid 7 hours from start to finish, but so worth it. 

I am going to leave the closet doors off and put up some white shelving. I know I won't want to put too much stuff in there to block the paint job. It looks even better in person, I couldn't have dreamed of it even turning out this well!!!!

Have you had any success with Pinterest projects recently? Do you have any accent walls in your house?