Paint an accent wall to quickly bring a fresh new look to a room. Ashley Basnight of Handmade Haven noticed that all the walls in her bedroom were neutral grey. To give it some extra character, she decided to add color and wall paneling to bring her vision to life. Check out this step-by-step guide that will help you knock out this inexpensive way to add character to any room in your home.

How To Paint An Accent Wall

Painting an accent wall has always been the quickest way for me to bring a fresh new look to a room. Not only is it inexpensive, but painting an accent wall can be a quick project you can knock out in a weekend.

Before choosing an accent wall, you first must decide where you want to draw your attention. Good focal points include fireplaces, living room media walls, and in my case, the wall behind my bed frame.

All of the walls in my bedroom are a neutral grey so I decided to add some color to give it a little character. I also went a little further and added some wall paneling to it to give it some extra spunk.

Prepping to Paint an Accent Wall

To begin prepping the wall for paint, I first taped off the edges of the outer accent wall with painters tape to prevent paint from getting on the adjoining walls. This step can be a pain, but is important in ensuring clean paint lines at the end of your project.

After taping off the wall, I went back and filled all of the nail holes on the walls from hanging pictures with painter’s putty. Filling in these holes ensures that the paint goes on flawlessly. It’s ideal for dents, holes, and cracks that you may have created on your wall. Once the holes were filled, I went back and cleaned the wall with a damp rag to remove any dirt.

Gather Your Supplies and Choose Your Color

After the wall was prepped and ready to go, I gathered my painting materials and began painting. I am a big fan of Behr Marquee Interior Paint and use it on most of my paint projects. It gives great coverage and I’ve always had good experiences with it.

I decided to paint an accent wall with the color Intergalactic so that it would contrast well with the adjoining walls. It looked gray on the paint card, but it has a slight blue tint to it. I loved the way it turned out. I also opted to go darker for the accent wall because I think bedroom accent walls look better with a darker tone.

Painting an Accent Wall

Normally, I do two coats of paint to ensure good coverage, but this accent wall only needed one full coat. Mainly because my walls were already painted a dark grey.

Adding Wall Paneling

Once the paint was dry, I removed all of the painters tape and started adding the wall paneling. Anytime I add wall paneling to my walls, I normally go with select pine, rather than the popular MDF.

Select pine is a little stronger than MDF and I don’t have to worry about cutting the MDF to size. It is more costly, but worth it in my opinion. To add the wood to the wall, I used Finish Nails and then secured it to the wall, using my brad nailer and brad nails.

Add the Trim

I started out by adding the trim to the outer edges and then started adding in the vertical lines. Then I went back through and added in the trim to create big squares. To ensure everything was even, I made sure to measure several times to get the best look for me. After adding the outer trim, I went back around and added more painters tape to the outside of the trim.

Attach the Trim

I used 2-in. brad nails to ensure that the boards stay secure to the wall overtime and put plenty of nails into each board for extra support. After securing all the paneling to the wall, I could already tell that the final result would look great.

Paint the Trim

After securing all the wall trim, I went back through and filled in all the nail holes with wood filler and caulked all of the edges of the trim to ensure a clean look. Once the wood filler and caulk was dry, I went back and painted the trim with the Behr Intergalactic paint. I used a paint brush to get into the cracks of the squares and used a roll-on brush to paint the actual wood. I applied three coats to the wood, to ensure good coverage.

Styling the Wall

Once everything was dry, it was time to enjoy all of my hard work. Although this accent wall was intended to be behind my bed, I opted to style my wall as a seating area to see how it would look and I may have other plans now.

Final Reveal

Intergalactic was the perfect choice for my bedroom, especially coupled with this hourglass accent table, stylish rug and rustic chair. This accent wall project was a quick and fun way to bring a lot of character to my bedroom and I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out. The wall paneling definitely made a huge difference in the wow factor.

Now it’s time to sit back, relax and enjoy it!