How to paint a herringbone wall with sharp lines even on heavy texture

So I'm not one to normally do modern; However, while picking out the perfect grey for our bedroom at Sherwin Williams (still not sure if I got that right) these super fun colors popped out at me.

I was pretty worried about the paint bleeding through since our walls have such a heavy texture.. but it didn't it worked great and here is how you can get it too...

herringbone pattern

divide up your wall

 I used the yellow frog tape. Since we had just freshly painted our walls. 

 First you need to decide how you want to divide up your wall. I did mine at 16.5 it got me the closest to being even with out some random fraction

mark the ceiling and baseboard with tick marks at your desired measurement this will help you to get your lines straight.. make sure you stand back and check for evenness.

after you have taped all your vertical lines you can start on you diagonals. You need to pick how thick you want them I did mine 8 inches. I wish now I would have done them more skinny.

Here is my poor attempt to draw a visual.... no laughing

starting in your left top corner measure your desired width down from the ceiling on your second vertical line. Mine was 8 inches. Stretch your tape from the top corner down to you line you drew. Continue measuring out you widths.. Make sure you measure from the base of the tape not the top. Hope that makes sense.

This part takes a long time just be patient. 

Now the magic trick... how to get 0 bleeds... 

Take your wall color and paint over your tape lines... I really slapped mine on, making sure to brush over it several different ways.  What this does is push paint into any gaps that may not be sealed by the tape. This seals in that area so that no contrast color bleeds through. 

Then you can start on your contrast color.

I suggest using a high end paint nothing cheap the thicker the paint the less likely it will be to seep under the tape.. I used sherwin williams and its plenty thick. The hot pink was almost like peanut butter with a little water added. It was almost too thick, but Im guessing its because there is so much pigment to achieve that super bright color... 

Surprisingly the white covered the best. I only needed two coats of it while the green needed 3 and the pink needed 4. 

Carefully peel of your tape lines and enjoy your new herringbone wall!

My paint did dry some as it took me a while to get all the coverage done... However I don't think I would leave it over night or anything before peeling your tape off. 

I had to do each wall one at a time to make sure I had enough time to finish it and get the tape off before the kids were awake. I still have one more to go. 

Frog tape is pretty amazing it works quite well by itself without the whole painting over it but I wouldn't trust it on a project like this... 

Here is a comparison of non painted vs painted... I decided to only go half way up my long wall since im going to be adding some board and batten and wall hooks... I taped off my line with just regular green frog tape and didnt worry much about bleeding as it will be covered with a board. The tape preformed pretty well but its not as crisp as the painted over tape. 

reg green frog tape separating the half wall

top of white line was with reg non painted over tape you cans see the small bleeds

with painted over tape very sharp lines...

You can use this idea on on anything trim ect.. Hope this helps and inspires your to try something a little more daring.. 

Hoping to have the whole room done soon.. After just moving in to our house there is so much I'm working on along with two little ones that keep me busy. Late nights are my new best friend as of recently..