I recently repainted my kitchen and dining area a nice bright white. While I love how fresh it is, it was severely lacking in color. I had painted a large chalkboard on one of the walls and decided to add a colorful border.

I am currently crushing on Turkish kilim rugs. I love their bright colors and fun (imperfect) patterns so I painted the border to resemble one of those rugs.

The first step is to decide how wide you want the border to be and tape it off. I taped off the border on the chalkboard paint for two reasons. One, I didn't want the chalkboard any bigger than it already was. Two, I would be using dark, saturated colors and painting over the white would have taken more coats of paint.

After you have the border taped off, tape off some stripes. Make sure and clean the chalkboard with hot soapy water before painting on it.

You will have to tape and paint twice since the areas with tape will also need to be painted. Paint the first round of stripes using a foam brush.

When all the stripes from round one have been painted, remove the tape. Allow it to fully dry before taping the second round. While I was waiting for the paint to dry, I decided what colors to paint the other stripes. I dabbed a bit of paint on the unpainted stripes.

After you tape off for the second time, I like to paint the edges of the tape with the base color to ensure that I get super crisp lines. Once that is dry, you can paint the second round of stripes. Remove the tape when you are done and allow it to dry.

THE BIG REVEAL

I first drew them on with chalk so I could get an idea of what it would look like. If I changed my mind, I could just erase it and do something else. Once I had the designs I wanted, I started hand painting them on.

I love how it turned out! Not only does it add much needed color to my dining room, but it is a fun element that makes my space unique!