Hey friends! It's Thalita from The Learner Observer and I'm back over here today to share with you a super easy hand-painted brushstroke accent wall that literally anyone can do – I somehow managed to get this done with 3 month old twins at home! Thank goodness for husbands who hold down the fort while you try crazy DIY projects, right?
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How to Paint a Faux Wallpaper Brushstroke Accent Wall
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To start, here's what you'll need:
- a size 8 craft brush like this
- scrap paper
- paint of your choice (I used Fusion Mineral Paint in Coal Black)
- about 2-3 hours
I tested out a few patterns before committing to one, so grab a few pieces of scrap paper and get painting! I decided to keep it pretty simple with the patterns because I have a lot of others happening in the room, and as much as I love a pattern mix, you have to be careful not to overdo it.
Once these guys were dry and I had a few I liked, I taped them to the wall, and here's the most important thing I did: I took photos! Why is this important? Because it helps you to (for lack of a better word) see the bigger picture. You somehow become aware of the room as a whole and how the pattern looks with other things in the space. I actually like to do this when I'm trying out anything new in a room. Give it a shot!
This helped me see that the thicker lines were a bit too bold for the room. Actually, my husband saw that right away, but I needed the photo to help me. I did change the pattern slightly by making the lines longer, but they stayed thin.
As far as “how” to do this…there's really no equation. You have to just kind of go for it. To help me along, I taped the paper with the pattern to the wall right beside the spot I was painting and made sure I worked in small areas, working with about a two-foot wide space, starting at the top of the wall and going all the way to the bottom. You can see here that I broke my own rules a little bit, but generally I worked within a small area.
And here is the finished wall!
I love that it's imperfect, but I've had several people ask me “where I got that wallpaper”, which is kind of awesome. It's just so nice not to have a big empty wall anymore, and you can see how the whole thing fits in with our gallery wall as well.
I've asked myself so many times why I didn't do this sooner. Oh, right… I was hugely pregnant and then busy with newborn twins. Better late than never, right?
I did keep it going even behind the shelves next to the daybed just in case we ever end up moving things around.
The great thing about a pattern like this is that it's really easy to paint around things and have it still look “natural.” Here's a close-up of it:
The natural brushstrokes and the fact that the lines aren't all completely opaque are part of what I love most about this pattern for the extra bit of dimension we get from it. Also, the boys seem to love staring at it!
Have you ever tried a hand painted accent wall before? Would you dare? I can tell you that for a few bucks and a couple of hours, it's well worth it and is certainly a lot less effort than wallpapering or stencilling! I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Until next time!
Looking for more simple painted accent walls? Try these 100+ ideas!
So excellent! Very graphic, but also totally classic. I painted “wallpaper” in my bathroom using gold paint pens. It’s not very big, but easily my favorite wall in the house,
http://soliloquybybethany.blogspot.com/2015/07/mab-update-magical-powers-of-paint.html#.V07yH_krJaR
How much of the paint did you need- like what size container? Is this paint brand better than say a small container of Sherwin Williams? Love your work and I’m going to try next week!
Oh it really wasn’t a lot! I has a small 16 oz container and didn’t even go through 1/3 of it! I used Fusion Mineral Paint, which is lovely and matte, but I’d say any flat paint would do the trick! Best of luck! Let us know (and definitely show) us how it turns out!
Thanks so much! I definitely will. I’m clearly a totally newbie..with your brush link on amazon–which style? Filbert, bright, flat round? Trying to get your result as much as I can! 🙂
oh! and what was your technique for getting so close to the edges and ceiling without it looking silly or going over?
I mostly used a flat round, but I switched to something flatter for wider strokes when I wanted them. As for the top and bottom of the walls, I just got as close as I could without touching the ceiling or baseboards – about half an inch – and made sure I used both full strokes and half strokes so it has more of a wallpapered look. I hope that helps!!