DIY Textured Accent Wall
Adding a pop of colour into any space can change it drastically, especially for someone like me who has a tendency of sticking to white. It’s important to me that my studio feels calm and clean, but one day I got an urge to add character, texture, and style- enter my pink wall.
My favourite colour of all time is Payne’s Grey (dark greyish navy), so my first thought was to paint one of the walls in my studio a marbled navy. I quickly remembered how dependant I am on bright natural light for my work and a dark wall would absorb a ton of it so I kiboshed that idea. I mulled over a few different colours and came back to another one of my faves - light dusty rose with a hint of peach. I figured it would keep a lot of the brightness and warmth in the room but add the character and texture I was looking for.
This was my inspo:
I read some blog posts about how to get the textured look and most of them seemed overcomplicated. People used anything from lime wash to dozens of layers of diluted paint. I ain’t got time for that! Instead, I decided to buy a single colour of paint and commit to only a few layers, gradually adding white paint to the can for each layer to achieve the textured look.
Before and after!
What you’ll need (pro tip: convince your friend to come help by bribing with pizza and wine):
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Gallon of paint (I used matte)
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White house paint
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Large sponge
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Roller + brush + tray
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Painters tape
Step 1: Run painters tape along the edges of your wall to protect the trim / door frames, etc.
Step 2: Pour glass of wine.
Step 3: Dump a generous amount of paint into the tray and roll evenly onto the entire wall.
Step 4: Let dry an hour or so (best practice is to probably let each layer cure overnight but I’m impatient).
Step 5: Pour another glass of wine.
Step 6: Fill the tray back up with the base colour and add about a cup of white paint (eyeball that), mixing thoroughly. Dip your brush into the new colour and wipe most of it off so the bristles start to separate. The key is to not have a saturated brush. Little by little make ‘x’ or crisscross formations with your brush strokes, followed immediately by a little buff with the sponge (this is where your friend comes in handy). The sponge will help blend out the edges of the brush strokes so you don’t have linear / defined strokes. Do this all over the wall and let dry for an hour.
Step 7: Repeat step 6 (adding more white paint to each new tray refill) until you achieve your desired effect. Then touch up the edges of the wall (don’t forget the corners) once you’ve had a chance to look at the end result.
Voila!
