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Room makeover (w/ Chevron accent wall)

I've been browsing a lot of DIY stuff on Pinterest and Instagram, and I got the idea to paint my room. I never painted a room before.... but this should be easy, right?? NOPE. It started simple, but I kept finding other things around my room that needed updating.


I knew I wanted a teal accent wall and decided on a chevron pattern. The other walls needed to be painted too since the generic beige just wouldn't go with the beautiful teal. I went with Behr's semi-gloss in Caicos Turquois and Dutch White. (I sent my husband to the store to buy the paint and this was the type he bought).


I was so excited to start!
Little did I know what was to come...

First I applied white primer all over the walls. Then I did the light gray on the three non-accented walls. For the chevron, I pretty much followed the instructions from Sugar, Spice, and Wine. My wall was 13.2 ft x 7.6 ft. I started by creating tick marks on the tape along the ceiling and baseboard 26.3 inches apart to get 6 columns, then applied vertical pieces of tape going up and down the wall connecting the tick marks. I wish I knew chalk reels existed at this time.... my lines would've been so much straighter. As for the diagonal lines, I knew that more "sections" would create flatter diagonals. I'm a bit OCD so I actually created samples on Photoshop to help me visualize the wall:


With 6 "horizontal" sections
With 7 "horizontal" sections
Overlapping 6 (gray) and 7 (white) to show difference

ANYWAYS. I made tick marks down the vertical tapes 15.3 in apart to create 6 horizontal sections, then connected them with tape as described in the Sugar, Spice, and Wine tutorial. At this point I only had white primer on the wall because I figured that I wanted white lines and didn't feel like doing a coat of white paint first.



So now with the tape in place, I applied the coat of teal. I was so excited to peel the tape like in those home makeover shows revealing beautiful sharp lines!! And I was SO DISAPPOINTED when I peeled the tape and saw all the paint that had seeped underneath since my wall was textured.




Part of me wanted to just paint the whole damn wall solid teal at this point. The other stubborn part of me was like, NO I MUST HAVE A CHEVRON PATTERN... so I started to paint in the lines BY HAND with a tiny brush. Even though I wanted the lines to be white, I didn't have white paint and refused to buy a gallon of paint just for this. Instead, I just used the light gray that I had painted the other walls with.



Left half is painted, right half isn't

When I was done with about 1/3 of hand painting the lines, I found a tutorial of how to paint straight lines on textured walls from Make It & Love It. I tried it on a small strip AND IT WAS AMAZING.


Should I do the rest of the lines with this method? Is it going to take longer because I'd have to let the different layers of paint dry in between the multiple steps?? I couldn't decide on what to do, so I just stopped for now.


Not long after, I was staring at the surfaces in my room. The coolness of the new colors made the ceiling, closet doors, and baseboards obviously NOT white -- they were this warm yellow-ish off white.


It's so yellow... bleh.

Those had to go! So I sent my husband to the store again and he came home with pure white (base #3450, no colors added), but in a different formula. Good enough for me!


The ceiling was the easy part. I used the secret to straight edges, and was amazed at the results (again).


1) Purposefully paint over the edge w/ ceiling paint
Crazy right?? Just keep following along.
2) Let paint dry, then apply tape onto ceiling
3) Apply ceiling paint to bordering edge AGAIN
You WANT this paint to seep under the tape
4) Once dry, apply wall paint color over!
SO CLEAN!! ❤️

Baseboards were annoying to prep but not hard to paint. I learned that there is space between the baseboard and carpet that you can just jam cardstock paper into to protect the carpet. I found it easier to place smaller pieces of the cardstock.



Once all the carpet was protected with cardstock and the wall with painters tape, I brushed the white onto the baseboards. Before removing the cardstock, I used an utility knife to score the edges to prevent the paint from peeling of the baseboard.


I painted the first side of the closet door with a brush, and the second side with a roller using a brush for the engraved areas. It was definitely easier to use the roller. When using the brush, there were areas that I painted over that weren't wet enough to blend nicely but not dry enough to paint over, so there was some clumping.


Sad paint clumping

BACK TO THE ACCENT WALL. I decided to just redo ALL the lines with the white paint since I had it now and also because it's what I wanted in the beginning (I was just settling with the light gray). This time I used the method from Make It & Love It and it was 1000 times better. It definitely hurt my soul when I painted over the areas I had tediously hand painted... I had to keep reminding myself to "trust the process".


"TRUST. THE. PROCESS."
"TRUST. THE. PROCESS"
"TRUST. THE. PROCESS."

IT WAS SO WORTH IT. There were still small areas on the lines that needed touching up, but nothing compared to the amount of work that hand painting the rest of the wall would've been.



In retrospect I should've done a second coat of teal on top of the white while the tape was on (technically a third coat) because a lot of the white was showing through the teal. I roughly painted over those as I found them.


😻😻😻😻😻

Everything in the room is pretty much painted at this point except the closet. I tried my best to ignore it.... telling myself that the closet doors will be closed most of the time. But I couldn't ignore it forever.


That beige though

The previous home owners had installed some backless shelving which was nice to have, but also annoying because I couldn't remove them to paint the wall behind it. So I had to tape off individual cubes so I didn't make a huge mess when painting the wall in the back of the shelves.



I originally played around with the idea of having a pattern on the closet wall, either by making a cat stamp with crafting foam or applying wallpaper. After painting the light gray, I decided it looked fine without a pattern and stopped there.


Nice and clean look (ignoring the mess below)

Can't forget the outlet covers and vent! My room needed a little sparkle so I applied glitter to those and the closet hooks. I initially tried a glitter spray that I had around from another project. I broke the nozzle while trying to get the plastic cap off (why was it so difficult??)... and I still tried to use it. I was able to get the stuff out and spread it on everything with my fingers. IT WASN'T SPARKLY ENOUGH.


Needs more sparkle!

So I used mod podge and holographic silver glitter. For the outlet covers and hooks, I applied a layer of mod podge first and sprinkled the glitter on. After it dried, I applied another layer of mod podge to help seal down the glitter. For the vent, I mixed the glitter into the mod podge and painted that onto the surface. I didn't bother with a second layer of mod podge on the vent because the glitter was pretty sealed already. This was perfect.



NOW everything in the room is painted and done.... just kidding! I was concerned that accent wall was going to get dirty easily or the lines will rub off (there were some lips where the lines are), especially since I use that wall for stretching and practicing head/forearm/hand-stands. All that hard work ruined. My friend recommended a glossy protective coat such as Minwax Water-based Polycrylic Protective Finish. She had used it in her studio on her gorgeous glitter wall and none of the glitter came off! She also recommended using a synthetic brush with a tip that "looks like hair with split ends" (a roller will not work). So I followed her recommendation and bought the supplies. I chose the water based formula because it dries faster than oil-based, doesn't smell as bad, and also won't yellow over time.



At first I was hesitant because it's labeled for wood work, not specifically for walls. I couldn't find anything on the Internet that said it SHOULDN'T be used for walls. SOOOO on it went! I bought a quart of the stuff and it covered the whole wall and a half. I did a second coat over the area of wall that I use the most. I also applied a layer of this stuff over the glitterfied outlet covers and closet hooks to help smooth out the surface.



Other than acquiring curtains, I'M FINALLY DONE! What started out as an "easy paint project" turned into a whole ordeal. Thanks to all my friends who went on this adventure with me (giving me advice, telling me that it's gonna be fine, etc). If I had to do it all over... these are the things I would do differently:

  • Use a chalk reel for marking long straight lines

  • Obviously use the straight paint edges method in the beginning. Even if it sounds like a lot of steps. IT'S WORTH IT.

  • Paint the accent wall the color the lines will be first. Even though it was white, the primer was dull and ugly.

  • TWO coats of teal before removing the tape. Actually, two coats of paint on anything textured. Don't get lazy or impatient and remove the tape after one coat.

  • Paint the closet at the same time as the rest of the room.













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