Gnashing your teeth in envy at our Room For Color entries on account of the "no painting" clause in your rental agreement? Looking for a "no muss, no fuss" method that tiptoes around that sticky issue and livens up your plain white walls? Consider stripes.
Camila of Effortless Style created a dramatic black and white striped room for her sister's apartment using black electrical tape. The 2" wide tape, ordered from Amazon, not only looked great but will easily peel off when it's time to move (use a hairdryer to loosen the adhesive if you're worried that it may ruin your walls).
I also love the fact that it bypasses the biggest drawback to DIY stripes: the fact that often, after hours spent measuring and painting, you invariably peel off the tape to discover that the borders of the stripes have bled, leaving you with stripes that look wobbly rather than crisp and clean.
This is an easy way to liven up a small bathroom or kitchen, even a closet, that can be done in a few hours and taken down in even less time.
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(Image: Effortless Style)
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It will peel off easily and not leave a sticky residue?
Electrical tape does not peel off without residue. It's meant to adhere very strongly to wire, so what makes anyone think it'll peel off without residue?
I dont know, the tape in the picture doesnt look as shiny as electrical tape. It almost looks like black painters tape...if thats the case, then it should work. Of course, I've never left painters tape on my walls for an extended period of time.
You can avoid bleeding by painting the base color over tape allow to dry and then paint the stripe color . . . voila no bleeding . . . a bit more effort but a better finish product will be your reward!
Electrical tape not only will leave residue after being attached to an item for an extended period of time, but will also leave black marks from the tape. Think of the temperature change in your room/home and what that does to the tape.
I would suggest painters tape over electrical tape. Electrical tape is really a bad idea IMO.
Instead of using electrical tape, I would use decals (order off Etsy, Amazon, etc.). They are offered in a wider variety of colors and won't leave the same residue.
What about contact paper?
Contact paper leaves a horrible sticky residue everywhere. Someone had covered all the furniture in my freshman dorm room with horrible faux wood contact paper, and I spent months trying to de-sticky everything with goo be gone and never made a dent.
How about fabric strips and liquid starch?
I would just paint with the colors I wanted and repaint everything renter's white before moving out. Tape, contact paper, temporary wallpaper, etc. can leave the walls damaged and require as much work to remove as a non-white paint.
What about washi tape? Has anyone tried using it floor-to-ceiling? I'm a renter and have been considering giving washi tape a try. This could be a great use for it!
Looks like gaffer tape, used in the film/tv industry to tape all sorts of things. Strong as duct tape, zero residue, easy to break pieces cleanly without scissors. Order it online, or in a pinch you can use hockey tape.
I know that you can find stripe decals to go on your walls (search via Amazon). But I bougt some decal wall photos before and they took the power of Goo Be Gone to get them removed fully from the wall. Pain in the butt.