Half-Bath Striped Makeover, Part 2

A few days ago I wrote about the first steps I took to turn my half-bath from a boring beige box to an inspired, striped room.  You can read the first part here.

When I left you I had finished all my measuring and taping by Saturday evening.

Sunday: Take a credit card and smooth out all your tape to make sure there are no gaps or bubbles.  This will help ensure that no paint bleeds under the tape. Then, and this might be the key step of the whole process, with a mostly dry brush paint your base wall color (for me- white) along the edge of the tape that butts up against the stripes you are going to paint gray. Don't over do it, you just want a little paint on your brush. The reason this step is so important is because it helps to seal down the tape, and if any paint gets under the tape it will be your base wall color- which is the color already found under the tape!

Since you're not using much paint it should dry relatively quickly.  After that step was fully dry I used a small textured roller (and a brush when needed) to paint my stripes gray. I did two coats.  Here it is after one coat:

 Right after I finished the second coat, before it was fully dry, I slowly and carefully peeled off the tape.  And this is what I was left with:

   
Peeling off the tape is so fun. I seriously beamed every time I pulled off a new strip.  Because of the precautions I took I had very few touch-ups to do.  There were only a few spot where paint bled under the tape. I just used a tiny craft paintbrush to do some touch ups.

At this point I was feeling pretty good about myself.  Keep in mind that my only expense so far was a quart of paint for around $15.  But then I had to address the elephant in the (tiny) room.  The floor.

 It's like the story "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie".  Except this story is called "If you give a girl a new striped bathroom she's going to want a new floor".  I hear it's moving up the best seller list.

Tomorrow: A new floor for $18. 

UPDATE: View part three, the new floor, here.