FINALLY! I have had this idea for as long as I've had the comforter stored - about two and a half years! I've looked and LOOKED for a blog that gave details (specific) on how to line them, how to measure, when to use the level, keeping the diamonds level. AND... I didn't want just BORING diamonds, I wanted the WOW, you really did AWESOME!!!!! And, if I say so myself... I LOVE THEM!
First things first ... paint your base color. I've matched the blue to the comforter.
After your base color paint has DRIED.....
I wanted my diamonds smaller. I chose to make them 18 inches tall, 9 inches wide. I also wanted pin striping, this would make a smaller diamonds in between. Lord, it sounds crazy confusing, just know that it will work!
Because I wanted it 18 inches tall. The first thing I did was make little dots, measuring 18 inches down from the ceiling. Repeating the marks all the way down to the floor. (I wasn't worried about making them geometrically correct on the wall... the bed, night stands and curtains will be covering the majority of the bottom. However, above the bed is an open wall...so starting with the ceiling was the best idea)
Keep in mind, my house was built in the 30's. So I would suggest to anyone (thank goodness for the hubs, who discovered this) to find a stationary object that is level. We used the window seal, vertically (the floor or the ceiling were not exactly level).
When you find your level object (floor, ceiling, window, wall, etc), start marking your horizontal line. Make a LEVEL line going horizontal from your stationary object - for the length of your wall.
Get your Measuring tape out. From the horizontal line, measure 18 inches vertically down (or up) from your LEVEL horizontal line. Do this for the entire stretch of the wall - making a dot every 6-12 inches. After you've marked it, take your level and make another horizontal line, the entire length of the wall. Repeat this process until your wall is covered in horizontal lines, 18 inches apart. Your wall will look like your painting horizontal stripes.
Now that you have one horizontal line marked with the 9 and 4.5 inches. Taking your Level at a vertical position, place on your first mark, making sure your level is vertically level, mark your horizontal line with the same sequence on the line above or below. Continue this with the rest of the horizontal lines.
Now that you're all marked, get the taping on! Here's my two sense.... I bought frog tape for the first sections of the wall.... but then I got to thinking. The diamonds are not so noticeable like a black and white diamond wall would be. Bottom line is, you don't need a perfect line and I actually pulled tape before it was completely dry and wiped it down, made it look worn, not so razor sharp. Moral of the long story, cheap painting tape is completely FINE!
I am trying to explain this to be as easy as you can understand. In order to make diamonds you have to slant the tape. Find a 4.5 spacing in the middle of the wall. Locate the same pattern below you on the next line, you want the next 4.5 spacing OVER from the one directly down, and so on. Hopefully the pictures are giving you a better idea.
Keep in mind that we're going one way first....slanting all DOWN, towards the LEFT.
The great thing is, your dots are vertical... so matching your dot to dot - slanted, will automatically make your tape level and equally squared.....
Now that you have the entire wall slanting from top to left. We need to go the other way. I started in the middle of the wall again. Making sure that your placing the tape INSIDE the 4.5 markings...
On your horizontal line - it will be a line cutting thru the middle of the diamonds. As you can see in the pictures. This is how you'll know your level and square too.
In the picture above you can see the horizontal line is going thru the diamonds and then there is another set of diamonds in between the lines also.
Get excited! The hard part is ALL OVER!
I didn't want the entire wall metallic diamonds. You can see where there's blue tape, those are the diamonds that WON'T be painted. I am painting every other diamond and ALL the pin stripes.
Get a rag and take the drawn line off the wall on the diamonds you're painting over. The rest you can do after you're all done painting.
Get your paint on. I diluted the metallic paint with a little water. Like a few tsp to 3/4 cup Metallic. The paint is really thick and dries even faster!
Have your rag dampened.
Paint a few diamonds and the stripes around.
Take the rag and wipe down if you want the worn look. After you've wiped, take the tape off and wipe down the edges to blend them and not make the SUDDEN line.
And there you have it!!!! I think doing a tan and metallic copper color would be AWESOME!
I'm SO HAPPY for the way it turned out! The work WILL BE WORTH IT!!!! Later I'll have more pictures, going to decorate each little diamond with Tacks!!
I'm SO HAPPY for the way it turned out! The work WILL BE WORTH IT!!!! Later I'll have more pictures, going to decorate each little diamond with Tacks!!
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