Easy Bathroom Accent Wall- Color Block Tutorial

lauriewelsh

3 years ago

Do you need ideas for a bathroom accent wall? I recently painted my first color block wall- it was so easy, and it helped me use up some leftover paint. Read on for the full tutorial!

I have a deep love for a cute accent wall. There are so many options out there too! Wallpaper, wall stencils, sharpie art, murals, and of course paint! I have this little “toilet nook” in my bathroom that really needed some extra love. It was looking very dark and sad in there, and it really didn’t match the rest of the room. A few years ago I gave the bathroom what I like to call a “lipstick update” 🙂 I painted everything white, bought some new hardware and light fixtures and added some plants. It looked so bright and fun in there, but I was overwhelming myself with different ideas for my bathroom accent wall.

Yep, I can be a commitment phobe.

I think I like home design a little too much. Ha! I also actually don’t like changing things up too often (other than throw pillows and flowers). Because with any DIY project (although they can be fun) they are also a lot of work! Can I hear an amen?! 😉 So when I started researching ALLLL the fun choices out there for cute little accent walls I ended up with decision paralysis. Finally, I settled on a color block wall because I had been seeing them a lot lately and thought – “hey, now here’s something I can do that actually doesn’t look too hard!” ding, ding, ding…. we have a winning idea folks!

My color block bathroom accent wall- here’s how I did it.

There were several shapes I was contemplating for this little accent wall, but my daughter Penelope ultimately helped me decide on this angle. The angle was also super easy because I didn’t have to do any crazy measuring. I just used frog tape and started up in the corner and dragged it down to a point on the opposite wall that looked good to me. The tape is great too because you can stand back and see the outline. This helped me make adjustments.

There are a few tools that made this process much easier for me; however, my wall had a lot of rough patches. If your wall is smooth you’ll be able to skip some of these steps.

FOR A FUN VIDEO TUTORIAL CHECK OUT MY IGTV VIDEO HERE!

First I had to remove the cabinet above the toilet. Underneath there were dried paint drips and the wall was very uneven. This is where my handy dandy electric sander came in! Boy, do I love this tool. It saved me so much elbow grease.

In the next step I needed to prime over those rough mismatched areas. I used a roller and nap like this one. In this small of a space it really helps to use a smaller roller. I got really lucky with this project because the bottom half of this wall was already the same white as the rest of the room. All I needed to do was paint the top part of the wall, and that is so much easier than trying to paint around plumbing!

I used frog tape to create the line for my color block wall.

In order to get my project done quicker I decided to blast the wet paint with a hair dryer in between coats. This worked like a charm! I also used the painter’s tape to seal off the edges around where I would be painting. I’m not the most precise or careful painter so I always use tape. Once the paint was dry to the touch I removed the tape and touched up any mistakes with a small brush.

You can see here what a difference a few plants make too! A pop of color and plants and… boom!

This project cost me nothing because I already had the supplies, but power tools aside- if shouldn’t cost you more than $50 to do a little wall like this. If you’re not using leftover paint then a quart should be sufficient for something like this small bathroom accent wall.