I started with a really ordinary white hallway and about a third of a gallon of leftover paint. Witness the boring hallway:

Not a lot going for it, huh?  Since our walls are 70s era textured, I didn’t bother with painters tape.  I’ve never been able to keep paint from bleeding under it and making more work rather than less.  If you have nice flat walls though, you might want to try Young House Love’s stripes tutorial.  If you live with textured walls, keep reading!  Painting stripes will take a bit longer, but you can do it.

I made lines six inches apart, starting at the baseboard at the bottom of the wall, using a level to make sure everything stayed straight.

Then I just marked with a pencil.

My paint color was Sharkey Gray by Martha Stewart, so I used a regular pencil and painted just over the lines.  (Use a colored pencil close to your paint color if you’re concerned about the lines showing up later.)  I left the lowest six inches of the wall white, then alternated gray and white up the wall, leaving the highest section white.  The last bit of the wall was higher than six inches, but I liked the look and left it that way rather than have a shorter gray stripe.  I think it adds a little height.

I used a smaller paint brush to follow my lines, then filled in with a slanted 2.5″ brush.  Here’s how it looks:

This is one of those projects that’s so much easier to appreciate in person, as I found the hallway kind of tough to photograph.  The lines draw you in and keep you going through the hallway.  Yes, kind of like a cattle chute, but in a much nicer way.

An under-appreciated, boring space in our house just became one of my favorite features — with nothing but leftover paint and a little time!  Score!