Ideas for Painting a Nursery With Stripes

Sports-Themed

• A sports-themed nursery pairs well with the use of striped walls. Paint a wall with a bright white color and create thin stripes using shades of red or blue to give a striped sports uniform look. For a more subtle sports theme, use pastel blue and off-white to create large stripes, and accent the walls with basketballs, footballs or soccer balls.

Two-Stripe Method

• The two-stripe method uses any two shades of paint. Whether they are contrasting colors or from the same color palette, the two-stripe method adds dimension even to a small room. Start by painting the wall with the base color and allow it to dry overnight. The next day, use painter's tape and a ruler to mark out the sections on the wall where the stripes will go. Apply the accent color in between the two lines of tape and allow it to dry completely before removing the tape. Either pastels or bright primary colors would work well in a nursery.

Accent Wall and Borders

• Stripes for a nursery do not have to be for the entire room. In fact, a simple accent wall can add enough dimension and additional color to bring the nursery to life. Consider creating an accent wall with the two-stripe method or pinstripes and decorate it with polka dots, letters or animals, depending on the theme. Rather than painting a wall from floor to ceiling, consider painting stripes on the bottom half of the wall and finishing with a wallpaper border that matches the overall nursery theme.

Alternating Widths

• Stripes on a nursery wall can be of the same or alternating widths. Use two to four different paint colors to create a wall of stripes ranging from 4 inches to 1 inch wide. Use the two-stripe method to create the alternating widths by starting with a base color and then taping out the individual lines and their widths. Paint each stripe its own color and allow the wall to dry completely before removing the tape. Alternating widths work best for accent walls, but they are more time-consuming than a traditional two-stripe wall.