How to Build an Accent Wall in a Bedroom

Would you like to build a feature wall in your home? If we can do it, you can too! Come along and we’ll show you how to build a modern accent wall in a bedroom! If you like the look, you could put it in any room you like!

How to Build an Accent Wall

Gather Materials

Gather the following materials to complete this project:

• Painter tape (Amazon – 2 inches) preferably close to the same size as the boards
• Pencil
• Tape Measure (Amazon – 25ft)
• Self Leveling Cross Line Laser (Amazon – Bosch GLL30)
• Tripod to mount the laser (Amazon – Basics tripod)
• Stud Finder (Amazon – 5 in 1)
• Air Tank (Amazon – tank, and toolset)
• 18 gauge Brad Nail Gun (Amazon – tank, and toolset)
• 18 gauge 1 1/2 inch Brad Nails (Amazon)
• Liquid Nails Projects Interior Construction Adhesive(Amazon)
• Quick Dry Silicon Caulk (Amazon)
• Manual or Powered Caulk Gun (Amazon – Ryobi)
• 1 X 2 unprimed or primed whiteboards
• Miter saw (Amazon)
• Wood putty or filler(Amazon)
• Paint- Sherwin Wiliams- Tricorn Black
• Paint rollers and brushes

Prep

• The first thing to do is to come up with a design for the wall. We decided that our accent wall would use a combination of squares and large triangles. We then looked at a lot of accent walls to get some inspiration.
• Take a pencil and paper, or your favorite digital drawing program on your laptop, and sketch your design.
• Make sure your wall is clean of dust and dirt.
• Next, use your tape measure and laser level to transfer your design to the wall.

• We mounted the laser level to a tripod to move it around. This laser could project up to a 30-foot line.
• The laser level also has an attachment to allow it to rotate to help with laying out just about any line on the wall.
• Measure and project the laser on the wall where you want your line(s). Take the painter’s tape and run it along following the laser.

• Use painter’s tape to lay out your entire design on the wall.
• Once done, review your design. If something is off a slight bit, it is easy to pull up the tape and change the layout.

• Take at least some general measurements to calculate how many linear feet of whiteboards you will need for your design. Add 10% to your total to make sure you have enough.

Attach Wood

Now it’s time to build our modern accent wall and put the wood in place of the painter’s tape.

• To make the best use of the brad nails and help secure the wood boards, use a stud finder. Make marks or place small pieces of tape vertically at different points on the wall, where each stud is located.
• Now take a pencil and trace enough of your design outline on each length of tape to be able to remove the tape and place a board there.

• Before removing the tape for each piece of the design, take measurements.
• Cut each board exactly to fit over where the tape is.
• Use the miter saw to cut each piece to length.
• Test fit each piece over the tape on the wall.

• Once satisfied with the board you cut, slowly remove the tape where you are placing this board or boards.
• Open your tube of liquid nails or other adhesive. Use an S pattern and apply adhesive to the back of the board.
• Line up and press the board onto the wall. Note any places the board crosses a mark or tape indicating a stud in the wall and shoot a brad nail into the stud. You can also shoot an occasional brad nail to help hold the boards while the adhesive sets up.

• Work your way across your design until you have cut and fit boards to replace the tape lines and finish your design.
• Inspect the braid nail holes. If any are not below the surface of the wood, you can use a nail set to give me a light tap to sink them.

Fill Holes

• Cover up the tiny brad nail holes with wood filler.

• Sand the wood filler smooth with sander paper.

Caulk

• Before painting, you should caulk along all the edges of the boards.
• Use a paintable caulk. We just used white even though we are painting the wall black to avoid having to find a caulk matching our wall color. Just paint over it.
• I used a Ryobi battery-powered caulk gun because it puts down a consistent bead.

• I tried to caulk edges in one consistent bead, then smoothed the edge with my finger.

Paint

• The last thing to do is paint the wall.

• Tape off the baseboard, ceiling, and adjacent walls to make painting go faster.
• Use good quality painter’s tape. I like Frog tape, especially if you are dealing with wall texture like the orange peel texture we deal with in Florida.

• If your boards are not primed, it will take more coats of paint.
• We used good quality wall paint that had paint and primer in one.

• We used a paintbrush to paint most of the edges and boards and a small roller to coat the open spaces between boards.
• It took two good coats and some touch up of light spots

Here is the wall after one coat of paint!

After two coats and some minor touch-ups!

The Finished Accent Wall

Do you feel inspired to build a modern accent wall in your bedroom or another room of your home? Let us know in the comments below!

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Blessings, Donna and Rich

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• Tile Over Existing Tile in Shower

TOOLS TO HELP GET THE JOB DONE

Click on the picture on any of these items to purchase any of the items to help get the job done.

Save it for later

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