How do you create a beautiful accent wall? I like to work with wood products that create depth and texture. Not only is it quick, easy and adds so much to the space, it isn’t too expensive. I like to save money but also make and create amazing results. Years ago I was into painting techniques. Do you remember rag rolling and sponge painting? It was the way things were done in the 90’s. I even did a denim wall in my sons room with paint and a hair pick. Thankfully things have evolved. I now love adding different wood accents.
Our home has the best guest bedroom. It is a decent size with a walk in closet and guest bathroom. Because my family lives so far away it is nice to have a comfortable space for them when they come for an extended visit.
The guest bedding is my absolute favorite. It was purchased a long time ago for our master bedroom. We have since graduated to a king bed but have a queen in the guest room. It is so pretty and washes beautifully. I think it still looks amazing. The colors are my favorite and I love the flower and stripe pattern combination. I wanted the feature wall to coordinate with the bedding and make the room look amazing.
Deciding what to do
This bedroom has a lot of windows. There is a wall of windows that overlook the street plus a window looking into our courtyard. It is a bright and cheerful room but because of the windows and doors there is only one option for the bed and accent wall.
I knew I wanted to create a wall that was timeless and added texture and depth to the space. This project was not only inexpensive but also simple. The installation only took and evening. I was able to paint the next day. In under 48 hours the room was put back together and ready for visitors.
Rectangles
I am the type of person that likes structure and continuity. When I am designing I like balance. I lean towards crisp lines and sharp corners as opposed to flow and circles. That is why I decided to build cute rectangles that would not only add depth and texture but also look stunning.
Because the room isn’t very large I wanted the rectangles to be small. To begin we measured the wall then figured out the size of rectangles that would work equally. We have 10 foot ceilings and the wall is 13 feet long.
Off to Home Depot
We went to Home Depot to pick up supplies. It wasn’t going to take a lot of product. We settled on 3 1/2 inch baseboard to create the rectangles. Some DIY’ers suggest pulling off the baseboard and install what you are using for the feature wall. Since I was installing 3 1/2 inch baseboard to make the rectangles I wanted to leave the original 5 inch baseboard. It didn’t make sense to install a narrower baseboard. That would create a whole new set of issues.
Creating
The first step was running a piece of board along the ceiling. We were only able to purchase 12 foot boards so we do have one seam. With caulking and paint it is barely noticeable. The second step was framing the sides from baseboard to the ceiling board we just installed.
Now that we have the wall perfectly framed we double checked our measurements because we now had the exact amount of space we were working with. Lucky for us we were able to make the rectangles work out perfectly. They ended up being 2’3″ x 1’8″ on the inside.
We then ran all the vertical boards to create our rectangles. To install the baseboards vertical we used PL 400 adhesive and air nailed it when we found a stud. If the studs don’t line up with what you’re installing you can also shoot the nail in on the angle which gives it more stability and holds things in place while the adhesive sets. We did have one electrical outlet to work around. Because it was only half in the board we didn’t use and extender. We just cut around the outlet and painted the wood. It was a non issue because it is behind the bed.
We were careful to purchase straight baseboards. This makes the installation a lot easier. Monte also used his 4′ level to make sure we were running everything straight and didn’t end up with lopsided rectangles.
Horizontal installation
After all the vertical boards are up the final installation step is adding the horizontal boards which will complete the rectangle. These are the shorter ones that go between each of the long boards. Because our walls aren’t square we did measure each board before cutting. There wasn’t a lot of variance but just enough it was safer to measure before cutting.
All the studs were located and marked before we started our installation. We were able to adhere each baseboard to a stud but because there was often just one spot we also used adhesive.
Caulk and Paint
Monte caulked all the seams for me. It doesn’t take too long but really give the professional touch you are looking for. The paintable caulk is ready for paint in about 20 minutes so you don’t have to wait very long.
I had previously painted the walls Benjamin Moore Bennington Grey. It is a color I really like with the bedding. I didn’t want to change up the color of the accent wall. Some time down the road I may decide to change the color but for now I just wanted to add depth and not an additional color to the space. I used a paint brush along the ceiling and walls. I also had to use a brush and paint the sides of each rectangle. It did take a little time but the end result was worth the effort. After painting with the brush I used my smaller roller and went over the face of each board. I did paint the wall between each rectangle just so everything looked nice and smooth.
Originally I didn’t paint the baseboard that was dove white. After I had the wall done I realized the baseboard against that wall definitely needed painted so it flowed.
End Results
This was such a fun and easy project. I love it when I have a vision that ends up looking better then I imagined. Not only did it add character and charm to the space it was simple and inexpensive. The cost to purchase the baseboard was under $200. Because I wanted the rectangles to be fairly small we used quite a few boards. If you wanted to create bigger squares or rectangles you could save some cost because it would require less boards.
I love the way things turned out. Come be our guest and stay awhile.
