Creating a hand painted accent wall or not

I looked at quite a few DIY images of artistic painted walls, but nothing seemed to really be "the one" for my space. Most of the wall pattern ideas were created in tiny spaces (like our powder bathroom) or were strictly done for one accent wall.

In general, I think accent walls are amazing (check out the ombre wall that we did in our son's room!) but you get a bigger impact and cohesiveness to your space when you do all the walls with the same wall pattern.

Of course, there are DIY accent walls that look great, but for my style and my house, I prefer to not have the accent wall patterns and instead have the room be a cohesive wall design. Well, I say that and then I remember that I did do an accent wall of shiplap in my eat in kitchen and absolutely love it!

Let's just say that for our laundry room, I felt like the painted wall designs needed to be on all the walls instead of just one.

Considering wallpaper

I went ahead and ordered a few traditional wallpaper samples and actually loved one of them. But after hemming and hawing about the geometric wallpaper, I decided to save that special wallpaper for another space (basement bathroom!).

Throughout this whole process, I had out a fabric sample from Kelly Wearstler that I've had for years. She makes the same pattern in wallpaper and I think I would have splurged and purchased it if the the color in the wallpaper was the same as the fabric. But, I couldn't get the right colors for my space in her wallpaper. So, I decided to go the DIY painted wall design route using her design as a major inspiration for my walls.

Painted wall designs supplies needed

• Paint
• Roller
• Paint Brush
• Circular Brush
• Painter's Tape

How to paint a wall pattern

• Roll and trim base layer of paint on walls. Let dry.
• Visualize the wall pattern ideas on paper along with where you want to start the faux wallpaper on the wall.
• For color washing walls, add color to paint roller and roll. Come behind the wet paint on the wall with a dry brush and brush off paint, wiping brush when needed to not have paint build up.
• Using a round brush, start the wall painting design in the middle of the main wall. For this geometric wall design, it's more free flowing than others so it was easiest to get the middle of the wall (where it's going to have the most impact) done first.
• Continue with the design throughout the room.

The faux wallpaper that you are painting has a pattern to it. In the second step, you visualized and drew that pattern. So, the goal is to create that wall pattern using paint in a seamless way.

How do you paint a wall and make it look like wallpaper?

The key to making your wall design look like wallpaper is to be deliberate with your wall pattern. If you are using a stencil, this is easier but if you are hand painting the wall, like we did, you just need to take your time to make sure that your wall pattern looks cohesive.

Color washing walls without glaze?

You can color wash with just latex paint. You can get different levels of the color wash depending on if you use a sponge or bush.

For our color washed walls, we opted for a stark brush stroke pattern but you could easily get a more washed out color wash with a sponge or cheesecloth. I watched this faux painting technique video by The Woolie Company and found it to be helpful.

I feel like the color washing technique is more modern than traditional sponge-painted walls but I think they've both been around a long time. It's probably just personal preference.

Pattern Ideas in our House

This isn't our first rodeo with wall pattern. If you are looking to install wallpaper, it's not as hard as it seems. We did that in our dining room and still really love the look.

A simple wall painting design idea is to paint your walls ¾ of the way up with one color, getting a color blocking look on your walls. We did that wall technique in our guest bedroom and it's a fun look for sure. It's still not considered a hand painted accent wall because we did it on all the walls.

I'm so curious to hear... would you ever attempt something like this? I feel like this is much easier than painting a wall with a wall stencil but I've never actually done that. What do you think?