After getting the plywood up on the ceiling and carpet pulled up from the floor in the man cave it was time to do something about the walls. Frank is a huge Michigan Football fan so there was no question that the room was going to be Michigan themed in Maize and Blue (the University's colors).
I thought that all Maize or all Blue walls might be a little overpowering so I suggesting to Frank that painting the walls white and having Maize and Blue racing stripes encircle the room would be cool. Frank thought it was a great idea so we went with it.
Here is what the room looked like before we painted:
The walls were pretty filthy so the first step was to wash it down with TSP followed by two coats of Benjamin Moore's Spanish White.
While waiting for the second coat to dry I laid down the roofing felt underlayment for the hardwood floor. I'll go into more detail about the hardwood later this week.
Once the paint was dry Frank and I taped off the stripes in the room. We made the top stripe 5" and the bottom 13" tall.
In order to get the stripes crisp and sharp we used a credit card to rub across the painter's tape to make sure it was really well adhered to the wall.
The next step was to paint Spanish White over the tape along the edges where the stripes would get painted. This is critical for getting a perfect line because any bleed through under the tape is in Spanish White which matches the wall.
Next it was time to paint the stripes. I bought Benjamin Moore's Glimmer and Polo Blue which I thought matched Frank's Michigan football helmet pretty well.
I started with the top stripe using a 6" roller to paint it Glimmer. Two coats gave it good coverage.
As soon as I finished the Glimmer I pulled off the top strip of tape. If you leave the tape on after it dries you risk pulling up some of your paint. I then rolled two coats of Polo Blue on the bottom strip.
I peeled off the tape and was pretty happy with the result. Most importantly, Frank loves it. I think it is going to turn out to be a really cool room once we are done. Next up hardwood flooring!
