As a designer who loves colour, I’m always looking to spice up blank walls in my spaces. That’s why I adore accent walls – hands down, one of the most creative ways to paint your walls. Check out for yourself how fast and easy it is to paint the perfect DIY accent wall in my latest episode of Paint School. This feature wall is the ultimate budget-friendly project to elevate literally any room.
Before:
Materials Required:
- BEHR PREMIUM PLUS® Interior Paint & Primer in Whisper White HDC-MD-08, Sunwashed Brick S180-2, Perfect Penny S180-6, Laurel Tree S390-5 and Breezeway MQ3-21
- Drop cloth
- Paint roller set
- Paint brushes in different sizes
- Painter’s tape
- A stepladder
- Measuring tape
- Pencil
Related: These Stylish Accent Walls Will Give Your Home So Much Personality
Step One: Choose Your Wall
Let’s start with the obvious question: Which wall should be the accent wall? Begin by choosing the area you most want to transform. Check the current state of the wall – if the existing paint is very patchy, you may need to start with a designated primer. Otherwise, you can just use BEHR PREMIUM PLUS® Interior Paint & Primer! I used BEHR® Whisper White for the base colour.
Step Two: Protect Baseboards and Floors
Use a dropcloth and carefully apply painter’s tape on the floor and baseboards near where you’ll be painting.
Related: Looking for Ways to Help Spark Creativity at Home? Design a Fun DIY Kids’ Craft Room
Step Three: Plan Your Design & Pick Your Colours
Once the base colour is dry, determine the design you want to paint and pick your accent colours. At this step, you may want to sketch out your design on paper first. Also, play with paint swatches and put them up on your wall to determine which colours go well together.
For my design, I chose different organic shapes. Use a measuring tape and a pencil to mark out your designs. Want to achieve a more geometric, graphic style? Use a level as a guide to draw perfect straight lines.
I picked four beautiful colours in a flat finish. All four are part of the BEHR® 2022 Colour Trends palette: Sunwashed Brick, Perfect Penny, Laurel Tree and Breezeway.
Related: Colour Psychology: What Your Wall Colour Says About You
Step Four: Finally, Paint!
Stir the paint as soon as you open it. TIP: Don’t open all your cans at once! Instead, paint your wall by moving from one colour to the next, using different paint rollers.
Allow the first coat to dry for a few hours or your wet paints may mix, resulting in a colour you don’t want. Only once your paint has dried can you go in with a second coat to perfect your shapes. Paint dry times can vary depending on the finish, how dark the paint is and how many layers you’ve used. Your best bet is to let your masterpiece dry overnight. The next morning, you’ll wake up to the almost-finished feature wall of your dreams! Simple peel off the painter’s tape and enjoy your handiwork.
After:
See how this room is totally transformed with just this punchy accent wall? If your graphic design is busy and colourful like ours, you’ll want to style this wall minimally. Notice how we kept all wall-hanging items on the blank adjacent wall, instead of interrupting the design on our painted wall. We’ve also relegated all the furniture to one corner, to keep the wall open and the eyes traveling.
Excited to make an accent wall of your own? Be sure to tag us on Instagram with your finished masterpiece: @hgtvcanada
Check out Paint School for more transformative DIYs.
