8 Tape Pattern Designs That Will Liven Up Your Home
Painter’s tape is an essential tool in any renovator’s arsenal. It allows painters to avoid unintentionally painting trim or ceilings. It also helps create clean, straight lines for a professional finish.
But the uses of painter’s tape don’t end with making sure one’s trim stays smooth. By using a little ingenuity and a lot of tape, you can create stunning, Pinterest-worthy patterns that will give your room an artist’s level of elegance. Here are eight tape pattern designs that will liven up your home.
Painted Trim
Many homes have decorative trim and molding, such as chair rails, picture rails, or picture frame molding. They help create visual interest in the space while adding a sort of aristocratic elegance. While installing this trim is possible if you don’t have it in your room, you can always trick the eye into thinking you have trim by painting it in.
Trace out the shape of your “trim” with paint and fill in the gaps. Or paint the wall white, wait for it to dry, then make a trim outline with paint. If you paint over the rest with a darker color, you’ll be left with a painted trim when you pull up the tape.
Wide Stripes
Stripes are one of the simplest tape pattern designs that will liven up your home, so it’s a good choice for beginners. But just because a design is simple doesn’t mean you can’t do it creatively. In fact, its simplicity makes it an incredibly versatile pattern. Here are a few ways to pull off stripes in a space:
- Horizontal lines
- Wide lines
- Stripes with different width
- Alternating between a color and a neutral
- Alternating between multiple different colors
- Alternating between two shades of the same color
- Alternating between two paints of the same color, but different glosses
The trick with painting stripes is to paint the entire room the lightest color first. Afterward, put up painter’s tape using a line laser leveler to make each line even. From there, you can paint the darker-colored stripes.
Chevron Patterns
For those who want to add an extra flair to their stripes, a chevron-striped pattern creates a bold, fun look perfect for an accent wall. The chevron pattern, which you can find on medieval coats of arms, consists of zig-zag lines in alternating colors.
When adding chevrons to your walls, keep in mind that the diagonal lines can potentially make an observer dizzy, especially when you put them on every wall, use many thin lines, and alternate between highly contrasting colors. Because of this, many choose to use it on only one or two walls, use wider stripes, or use colors with a gentler contrast.
Diamond Patterns
A diamond wall pattern looks complicated from an outsider’s perspective, but it’s much simpler to execute than one would think. It begins with a light or neutral-colored base coat. Once primed, apply equidistant diagonal stripes with your tape traveling from one corner to the other, then again traveling from the other corner to the next.
From here, you should notice that the tape has created a series of diamonds. On top of the tape, you can apply two coats of your bottom paint. When the paint has dried, you can remove the tape, leaving you with a series of clean, sleek diamonds.
Pro-Tip: Harlequin Walls
For a more complicated variation of the diamond wall, instead of creating diamonds with crisscrossing stripes, use the tape to create equally spaced diamond shapes across your wall, leaving enough space for same-sized diamonds to fit in between.
Paint the diamonds, wait for them to dry, then create a tape diamond in between. This will allow you a pattern where the diamonds touch.
Tessellation Pattern
In geometry, the word tessellation refers to a repeated pattern of the same shape with no overlaps or gaps. You can create this kind of pattern with numerous different shapes, such as:
- Triangles
- Squares
- Hexagons
- Cubes
Creating a tessellation follows a similar process to creating a diamond pattern. To do so, choose your shape and create tape outlines of it across your wall. Then, paint over the entire wall with your paint color of choice.
If you want to make the individual shapes on your tessellation different colors, it may help to use a wider width of the tape. This will keep the shapes separated to prevent overlap.
Herringbone Patterns
One way of utilizing tessellations in a classy way is to create a herringbone-patterned accent wall. Like the diamond wall, this tweed-reminiscent pattern looks far more complex than it is.
Start with taping wide, vertical stripes across your wall to create a herringbone pattern. Then, you will divide the stripes into rhombus shapes using diagonal strips of tape, with each horizontal strip’s rhombus’ facing the opposite way. When you have your pattern, paint over the tape, then remove it when dry.
Geometric Pattern
For a more whimsical design, paint the wall with several uniquely shaped blocks of color instead of a series of polygons. This does take a little more planning than previous wall patterns since you design the shapes yourself. But this allows you the freedom to design a wall that fits your aesthetic.
First, put strips of tape across your wall in your desired pattern. Then, fill in each shape with your choice of colors and allow them to dry before removing the tape. Another variation involves painting your walls white before taping, then painting a single color on top of it.
Skyline Pattern
Scenic or mural wall paint designs are difficult to accomplish with painter’s tape because they usually involve curved lines. One exception is a city skyline pattern. This fun wall design is perfect for urban- or industrial-themed spaces or superhero-themed kids’ bedrooms.
The best way to add depth to this style is by adding additional layers to the skyline. Create one line of buildings on the top third of your wall and another layer halfway through. Then, paint the top layer a darker color, like black, and the bottom a lighter color, like gray. This will give the scene a sense of perspective.
It’s amazing what you can do with a painter’s tape and creativity. And if you source the tape, ECOS Paints can provide you with the interior wall paints you need to bring your designs to life.