How to Create a Painted “Wallpaper” Accent Wall

I don’t know about you, but I’m ALL about the wallpaper these days. I just love the life, color, and movement they bring to a space. Unfortunately, wallpaper still has a bad connotation with many of the people I talk to. The thought is that it’s expensive, hard to hang, and even harder to remove. Some of this is true. But, wallpaper has come a long way, and should definitely be considered when taking on a new project.

That being said, if you’re still unsure about wallpaper, there are ways to achieve a wallpaper look without the expense and commitment. With some paint, painters tape, time, patience, and math, you can create a colorful accent wall with the look of a beautiful wallpaper. The beauty of this approach is that it’s completely customizable. You can adjust it to suit your space, by playing with the size, shape, colors, and placement.

To complete this project, you’ll need the following:

• Different colors of paint (I used white for the background, a lighter greige that I painted the rest of the room, and half pint samples of a darker greige and an orange for the triangles)

• Paint brush(s)

• Painters tape (1” wide will make the math easier)

• Level (4’ or longer is recommended)

• Pencil or chalk

• Tape measure

To start, you need to determine which wall(s) you want to apply this treatment to. Given the busy nature of the pattern I decided to go with, I chose to only apply it to one wall, the wall you immediately see when entering the room. You might want to apply this to all four walls of your room, on the ceiling, above or below chair or plate rail, or in a niche. Get creative!

Once you’ve identified your wall(s), start by painting the base coat. For this room, I went with a clean white. But you could use any color, as long as your triangles are a contrasting color that will pop against it. 

Next, you’ll need to determine the rough size and shape of your triangles. I used painters tape for this, laying out a few different options, standing back, and seeing how they would translate to the entire wall. When I was happy with the basic size and shape, I had to determine how to distribute them across the wall. I opted to adjust the size of the triangles so that they divided equally across my wall. My wall was roughly 10 feet wide. So, factoring in my 1” wide painters tape, I opted to do 17 triangles at 6.25” across which would give me a pretty even distribution across the wall. 

If you’re doing multiple walls and can’t find a size that divides equally across all of them, you could lay your first triangle in the center of the wall and work outward. This will center the pattern on the wall but possibly create some cutoff or wrap-around at the ends.

I planned to have an inch of white space on either end of the wall, so I started by laying down a strip of painters tape along the left wall. But, as you can see from my photos, my measurements got off track as I worked my way across and I ended up without space against the right wall. So, word of caution - keep your measurements precise as you work across the wall.

Once my first piece of tape was up, I measured out 6.25” and drew a level line with my 4’ level from ceiling to floor. I then measured out 7.25” from that line (6.25” of triangle + 1” of painters tape) and drew another level line. I continued this way until I reached the right wall. Then I laid down the painters tape to the right of each of these lines.

I didn’t try to equally distribute the triangles vertically on the wall. I was pretty picky about how long I wanted them to be (3”) and wasn’t willing to adjust that. So, I started at the top of the wall, where your eye will naturally go, and ended up with extra space at the bottom, where it wasn’t as noticeable. If you want to distribute these equally vertically, use the same process as we used for the horizontal distribution.

I laid one strip of painters tape along the top of the wall. Then measured down 3” and drew a level horizontal line using my 4’ level. Then I measured down 4” from that line (3” triangle + 1” painters tape) and drew another level line. I continued this down the wall to the floor. Then I laid my painters tape along the bottom of each line.

To make the triangle shape, you need to find the center of each rectangle you’ve created with the painters tape. Since mine were 6.25” wide, my center point was 3 ⅛”. I marked this on each one using my level. Once you have the center marked, you can place painters tape from the upper corner down to the center point on each side to form the triangle.

So many triangles….

Yes, this can be a long, tedious process, depending on the size of your triangles. For me, I turned on my music and enjoyed some “me” time while I knocked this part out.

Now that you have your triangles formed, it’s time for the fun part. What I didn’t do, but wish I had (and would recommend you do), is painting over all of this with your background color. It’ll seal any gaps in your painters tape and prevent the colors from bleeding under the tape and creating a clean-up headache for you. Once your background color is dry, apply your colors to the triangles (you’ll be able to see the painters tape below your paint). I wanted to keep it random, but you could certainly use a pattern. You may need to do two coats.

Once dry, remove the painters tape and clean up any marks left of the wall from drawing the level lines. I used a pencil for my project, which forced me to essentially touch everything up with more white paint. If I did this again, I would use chalk, which wipes away easily. That, or use a Magic Eraser, which is magic when it comes to removing pencil from walls. I also didn’t paint my background color over the painters tape so I had A LOT of bleeding that I had to clean up. Aren’t you glad I made all of these mistakes so you could avoid them? ;-)

I hope you take this tutorial, adjust it for your style and space, and create something you love!