It's that time of year again, when we go crazy for color. For me, it's a time to think about stripes. LJ's effort, seen above, is a great example of a way to leave your mark on a room with a little painter's tape and some left over paint....

Stripes are a way to add color, but not too much color. It's your only chance to be 'sort of' pregnant. The color differences can be subtle as in this glorious cucumber wall revealed by our color therapist or they can be striking, as seen here in Kathryn and Daniel's 2007 Fall Color Contest entry.

You can make the masking tape itself the stripe and be finished in a couple of hours, as Hakarl and Jili did in their kitchen or you can go completely obsessive and let your wall decor decision take over your life, as yours truly did in the living room!

Whatever you choose, stripes can be fun, add some color in a very controlled way--just as much as you want, where you want. Stripes offer endless flexibility. You don't have to fill an entire wall. They can serve as trim to a room, a hidden secret in the corner, a band around the entire perimeter of a space, or they can dominate the room completely. They can be as simple or as complicated as you prefer. And when you get tired of looking at them--just paint them over with a base coat and your on your way to the next vision....