So, you will have to bear with me… this post may get a bit long! I have a bunch of pictures to share with you!
As many of you know, this past summer, we found water in our basement and had to tear the whole thing out – not fun! I will share the full story with you when I do a full room reveal, but for now, let’s just say we lost our floors, our walls, our baseboards, and some furniture, and lived for several months with contractors coming and going and working. It was a total pain in the behind, which makes it being completed all that much sweeter!
My first project was this colorful playroom accent wall, which is actually much easier and far less time consuming then it seems at first glance. The whole measuring and taping process probably only took an hour. The painting took about a day, only because of all of the coats, different colors, etc. (That includes a lot of inactive, drying time.) Then the process of adding the vinyl words took an hour or two – that includes cutting, laying them out, and adhering them. My new Cricut Tool Set made it sooo much quicker and easier though – I’ll tell you more about them in a minute.
(And I have to tell you to excuse the poor lighting in some of the process shots – I was working at night when my babes were sleeping, and this room has NO windows! So any chance of natural light was nil.)
If you want to create a similar look in on your playroom wall, or any other room, here is the process I followed:
(1) Paint your wall your base color – the color of the lines between the colored squares. Measure the width and height of your wall, and divide it by how many squares you want. Remember to take into account the width of your tape!! I used 1″ tape on all sides with 5 blocks in each direction. My blocks aren’t totally square (they are about 17 in x 15.5) but you can’t tell once it’s done. I didn’t create a border on the bottom because my baseboards would be there, and they were being painting the same color as my base color. Apply the tape to the left edge of your wall, then, measure one width across the top, and mark where your next tape strip should start. Use a laser level if you have one to guide your tape down the wall, and place the tape. Then, repeat from the other side of the tape. (If you don’t have a laser level, just measure out every 18″-24″ or so to make sure your tape is going down in a straight line.)
(2) Seal your tape by painting over it with your base color. This prevents bleeding because it allows your base color to bleed through any small gaps in the tape, and will prevent your next color from bleeding. This was the first time I sealed the tape, and I was AMAZED at the results! I had such amazing crisp lines when I pulled that tape off. Even though it’s an extra step, I highly recommend it.
(3) Paint your color blocks on in whatever pattern you choose.
(4) Pull your tape off as soon as you can, so the paint doesn’t come off with it. (For best results, let your base color cure for a few days if you can. I had a few spots that I had to touch up where the tape pulled the base color off and I had to touch it up.)
Now that you have a grid wall, it’s time to add some fun decorations to it! I decided to add some words that represented playing and children to me, and then got started.
I used Cricut vinyl in linen, Cricut transfer paper, and my new Cricut Basic Tools Set. If you are doing smaller, more intricate designs like text, the Basic Tools Set is a must! (And I love that they have holes in the bottom so I can hang them on my pegboard for easy access – it’s the simple things, eh?) It comes with scissors (with a cute cap!), spatula, scraper, weeder, and tweezers. I used the scraper, weeder, and scissors on this project, so it was a HUGE help to have them. (I felt like a dentist with all of those tools laid out like that!)
After I cut my words, I used the weeder (the pointy thing) to pull the excess vinyl away from my words. The weeder worked really well on smaller pieces, like getting the inside of letters out. (I darkened this photo for you, since it was so hard to see the white on white!) Next, I flipped my vinyl and attached it to the transfer paper. Then, I used the scissors to cut all of the words apart.
I laid the words out on the wall first to get a feel for where I wanted them before I stuck them on and changed my mind.
Once I had decided on the placement, I peeled the backing off the vinyl, and starting rubbing them on.
After a couple, I had the brilliant idea to use the scraper, and man, did it speed things up! The transfer paper peeled off the vinyl so smoothly, and the words stuck to the wall right away. SO. MUCH. FASTER. To think I have been using my fingers all of this time to rub them on!
After the transfer paper is pulled off, their in nothing left to do but stand back and admire your handiwork… or your daughter and her super cute smile – your choice 🙂
And if you haven’t grabbed them yet, make sure you head over to Cricut and grab this awesome set of tools! I’m seriously not lying when I tell you they are indispensable when working with vinyl, or any other intricate designs or delicate material!
** I have been provided with complimentary product from Cricut to complete this post. However, I truly am madly in love with it, or I wouldn’t tell you I was 🙂 **
Tre says
Wow! Very creative! I wish I had the skill to do something like this but I would fail miserably.
Sarah says
Trust me it’s not that hard to do! I usually can’t draw a straight line to save my life. Try it, you might surprise yourself 🙂