If a space in your home isn’t getting much love, it’s often a sign it’s time for a refresh. This was the case with this once functional, now forgotten powder room. The space felt dull, dated and uninspiring. In other words, it needed some paint.
Inspired by the resurgence of stripe walls and a full commitment to colour, transforming this space into a bright and playful powder room for the kids was a challenge, but the finished result made this DIY project so worth it.
Here’s how you paint a striped powder room and inject personality into a forgotten space.
What you need:
- Selleys Spakfilla Rapid
- Selleys Rapid Mould Killer
- Dulux Precision Stain & Mould Blocker Primer
- Chosen base colour
- Chosen top coat colour
- Masking tape (for masking and stripe pattern)
- 120 grit sandpaper
- Brush
- Roller
- Drop sheet
Part 1 – The Prep
A bathroom project requires an extra level of care compared to your standard bedroom refresh. The risk of mould and water damage means choosing the right products and doing the right prep is the most important step of this paint project.
Step 1: Clean and repair
Begin by assessing the bathroom space and repair any damage. Fill holes with Selleys Spakfilla Rapid, allow to dry and then sand smooth with 120 grit sandpaper.
Next, clean the walls with Selleys Rapid Mould Killer. Leave the spray for 2-3 minutes before scrubbing the walls.
Step 2: Sand
Using a pole sander, lightly sand the walls with 120 grit sandpaper. This is one of the best ways to achieve a professional finish for your project. Wipe away any remaining dust with a cloth.
Step 3: Mask
With masking tape, tape the top of the tiles and any areas not being painted in the bathroom. Keep the edges of the tape fanned out to catch potential paint splatter.
Step 4: Prime
Apply 1x coat of Dulux Precision Stain & Mould Blocker Primer to the walls. Allow to dry.
Part 2 – The Striped Walls
We love striped walls. They’re bold, playful and ooze personality. That makes them perfect to refresh this bathroom space. And with the prep done, it’s time to move onto the fun part of this project… painting a striped half wall around the bathroom.
Step 1: Base Coat
Apply 2x coats of your chosen base coat to the walls. Start by cutting in around the edges before rolling. Allow the first coat to dry before applying the second.
For this project, the base coat was already complete, so only the feature colour needed to be applied.
Step 2: Measure
You need to decide how many stripes you want and how wide they’ll be. There are a few ways to do this. The easiest way (that doesn’t involve any maths) is to create a thin stripe pattern based on the width of the tape you’re using.
Start by taping your straight line down the wall. Then, using small pieces of tape, stick them next to the initial line to create a width guide for your next stripe. Finally, tape your next line down the wall. Repeat this process across the bathroom.
Another option to create the stripe pattern is to measure walls and get your favourite AI chatbot to do the maths for you. Here is an example we used for our striped bedroom feature wall:
Here’s the prompt we used:
Can you tell me what size to make stripes on a wall? The wall is 3285mm and one of the stripes has to be 180mm.
And here’s the response:
Great — let’s size them so the stripes fit exactly across the 3285 mm wall.
You want equal stripe widths.
Step 1. See how many stripes we can fit close to 180 mm
3285 ÷ 180 ≈ 18.25 → so 18 stripes is the closest.
Step 2. Divide wall by 18 stripes
3285÷18=182.5 mm3285 \div 18 = 182.5 \, \text{mm}
✅ Answer:
You’ll get 18 stripes of 182.5 mm each — perfectly filling the wall with no gap.
Expert Tip - To prevent marking the wall with pencil, we recommend masking your trims with masking tape before measuring. This way, you can mark the tape, not the wall.
Step 3: Bleed Seal
Before painting the colourful stripe, you need to bleed seal the tape with the base wall colour. This is the key to achieving crisp, clean lines (a must for any stripe wall).
Paint over the edges of the masking tape with the existing colour of the wall. This will mean that any bleed will match the colour already on the wall and you will have now effectively sealed the paint. Allow this coat to dry fully before you apply the top coat.
Step 4: Paint
Once the existing base coat is dry, roll the top coat paint colour onto the wall, overlapping your masking tape lines so that you can achieve the clean lines you desire. Allow your first coat to dry fully before applying the second, again overlapping your tape.
Step 5: Reveal
Once your paint has dried fully, gently pull the tape from the wall to reveal the razor-sharp lines of the striped half wall.
Part 3 – The Finishing Touches
While a striped half wall is bold enough on its own, accessorising and styling this space is just as important in this bathroom refresh. From painted frames to resprayed fixtures, there are so many little projects that can help elevate a space from fine to fabulous.
What was once an overlooked room is now bright, fun and inviting. This project shows just how effective a stripe wall can be when paired with the right preparation, tools and expert advice from your local Inspirations Paint store.