Photo by Carla Natalia
After staring at my grey walls now for nearly 2.5 months thanks to COVID, I’ve been dreaming up ways to change them up. How I wish this DIY brushstroke accent wall was still on my to-do list. It’s such a fun project and really transforms a room. It also doesn’t require much paint or skill. Bonus! Now that I’m tackling painting my grey walls a fresh white, I’m thinking about new ways to dress up the blank slate. After a little research, I’m rounding up a few easy projects to do at home with minimal paint!
Half Painted Wall
You’re quite literally half-assing this project which makes it the perfect quarantine project. This is a fun way to add some color to a room and interest. There are two rules of thought here for where to paint up until. One recommendation is to go up two-thirds of the way for it to look and feel right. Or you can set it up to chair rail height which is usually around 28-32 inches or roughly 25% of the room height. Whatever you do, I wouldn’t recommend going 50%. It just doesn’t feel balanced and may make your ceilings feel lower than they are.
Bedroom Wall • Two Tone Wall
You can also paint vertically instead of horizontally. There are some fun paint projects that incorporate colors and vertical lines. This could definitely draw your eye up making your ceilings feel taller! Or forget vertical or horizontal and go diagonal. I always loved this room from Gold A La Mode.
Gold A La Mode
Arches
I’ve been seeing painted arches everywhere lately. From creating faux headboards, to a pretty backdrop to a credenza, to even just a spot for a little shelf. It creates dimension and interest without taking up any space.
I love this painted arch for a little bookshelf in a child’s room or nursery. Such a pretty way to display books and create a little corner. Genevive of Collective Gen shares her tutorial here. And for behind a credenza or entry way bench, I love this terracotta hued arch from Carla Natalia.
Painted Headboards
The painted arch or even half wall is a great way to frame a headboard in your bedroom. But I’m really loving this project that Jenny Komenda did. I don’t even know what you would call it, but I’m obsessed. You could also do an arch, a large wide vertical stripe, or just paint what would be a normal headboard around the bed like Paper & Stitch did below. I’m also kind of obsessed with this giant circle as well!
Scalloped Trim
White browsing for ideas, I stumbled onto this scalloped trim wall project. I think this is just darling for a little girls’ room. You can again do this at chair rail height, or two thirds up the wall. You can also reverse it so it looks like a scalloped awning. This definitely takes a steady hand to hand paint the scallops, but just be sure to trace them ahead of time!
Pink Scalloped • Grey Scalloped
DIY Brushstroke Walls
After doing my DIY brushstroke accent wall, I noticed there were SO many variations of this. From big strokes to small ones, more precise, more streamlined and just about everything in between. I’m loving the tonal ombre one below on the left. It’s also perfectly lined up horizontally across the room. This will definitely take a little more effort, but it has such a pretty effect. Then on the right, I loved this project from I Spy DIY. It’s definitely not a free for all, but has such a cool look to it.
