Hand Painted Accent Wall
So we have been in our house for 2 years now (which is CRAZY! 😳 Time flies!) and in the beginning we did a TON of work...although that does get tiring...seeing transformations is SO fun...so I was getting the itch to start doing a few things again!
If you follow along you know that I have a closet office room. I love how that room looks...but have thought about doing an accent wall behind where my shoes and hanging rack are. Even though I wanted to do it, I had a HARD time deciding what! Well, this weekend I finally picked something and did it! 🙌
My friend Hilary (who also was our real estate agent) had done a pattern in her office that I thought was fun so I reached out and asked her to help! I did not do a great job of taking pics/video the whole time...but I have enough that I think you will get the gist!
Full disclosure...I thought this was going to be a stencil...it is not! 😂 It is free hand with a "guide"...so I was real nervous I would not be good at it! But...it was all OK!
Tools you need:
- Whatever color pain you want your marks to be- I actually don't know the name of my color because it was a hand me down- but it is very dark charcoal (nearly black) and a flat finish.
- 1.5 inch angled paintbrush
- Cardboard- mine was an 8 inches wide
- Level (long one is most helpful)
- Pencil
- Ladder/step stool
- Some wet rags/paper towels (I thought I for sure wouldn't need one...I wasn't going to mess up! haha- wrong!)
- Large trash bags or plastic to cover the floor
Here is what I did:
Make sure your wall is clean and the color you want (mine was white so I did not have to paint a full wall to start.) Remove the outlets/switch covers. I left the vent up (mostly because the screws ere impossible to get out 😂)- so just worked around it.
Cut your cardboard piece the size you want your sections to be. I went with 8 inches, but could be smaller or larger. Use the cardboard piece and a LEVEL (no picture of this part) to mark the sections at the middle of the wall, top, and bottom- then use your level to make long lines down the wall. Don't push too hard with your pencil (I did my first few lines and those were way harder to get off!
(please excuse my nails! 😜)
Take your cardboard and fold down the top to make angled lines to decide how much of an angle you want. I started with a steeper one than this then backed off a bit. Once you like your angle cut off that extra flap of cardboard.
Use your paint to practice a few strokes on the cardboard. This will help you determine pressure (more the line will be thicker), get used to making the line (which is scary at first!), and figure out how much paint to get on there each time!
Just do it! Like I said, the first few are very scary! The lines will NOT all look the same! That is part of the design and why it looks cool! You also will make some closer together & some further apart...if you feel like they are getting too spaced out- just make the next few closer! I will let you know that the corner (which was my first row) was scarier and harder- just not wanting to get paint on the other wall. I had a few times I had to use my rag to wipe it off...but over all it went fine!
Then you just keep doing it! I left space around the door and the vent, did not want to try to really make half lines! But I like how that spacing looks!
My first row took me 1 full hour...my second took 40 min. I started the project at like 7:30 pm on a Saturday so called it quits until the next day. I did get much faster- more like 20 min for a column- so the project did not take like 10 hours. 😜
Overall I am super happy with the project....easy, not too time consuming, and inexpensive! I would love to hear your thoughts & make sure you show me if you try it yourself!
Watch a short video tutorial here!
Tag me @gymjen99 on IG!