DIY Black and White Buffalo Plaid Wall

When redecorating our extremely outdated ski condo, I knew I wanted to incorporate plaid. I wanted to keep the color scheme black and white, so I thought a Buffalo Check Plaid would work the best! We also LOVE this storage cabinet and thought it worked out perfectly! We got the SKI letters from hobby lobby. 

Tools you need:
1. Paint Brushes
2. Drop Cloth
3. Step ladder
4. Painters Tape
5. Four paint colors

• I would use the base color white that is throughout your house. We used
  • Snowfall SW 6000, it seemed appropriate for our ski condo
  • Tin Lizzie SW 9163
  • Grizzle Gray SW 7068
  • Black Magic SW 6991
• We got the quart size in Duration which was plenty for our hallway and living space - granted it was really only half the wall we painted. 

Step 1: Paint 6" horizontal stripes with Tin Lizzie or the lightest gray you have. If your wall does not add up mathematically, you can make your top and bottom stripes smaller. Ours was 5.5" on top and 5.5" on bottom. Remove tape. 

Tip: Before you paint the stripes, make sure the tape is SECURE. Press them down good to minimize paint seeping through. You want to put two light coats. If you goop it on, you will get uneven lines. Also paint along the tape. So for the horizontal stripes, move your brush horizontally.  

Step 2: Tape of 6" vertical stripes.  Notice that when taping the stripes you are taping only the part you want to paint. So you have one wide, one narrow "taped" stripe. I pointed arrows to all the narrow stripes. Essentially you measure 6" from the edge of the wall to the first part of the tape and 6" between the edge of each tape. If you account for 1" width of blue tape, essentially between tapes, it is 6", 4", 6". Make sense?

Step 3: To keep myself on track, I put blue tape on the stripes I was going to paint Grizzle Gray or your darker gray.

Step 4: Only paint the white squares along the stripe. There is no need to paint the whole stripe. Let dry. NO NEED TO REMOVE THE TAPE after this step. 

Tip: Again, make sure you press down and secure the tape to achieve a clean line. Make vertical brush strokes along the tape in two thin coats. The key is to paint along the tape, not against it. 

Step 5: Tape the squares where the light gray meet the dark grey. 

Step 6: Now paint in between the squares Black Magic or your black. Of course my husband painted this step and did not get a photo. But you get the idea! Let dry!! Remove the tape and VOILA!

Tip: Paint two thin coats and follow the tape line. 

The REVEAL