Modern Whimsical Accent Wall With Washi Tape

Kristy
by Kristy
8 Materials
$40
5 Hours
Easy

My daughter has been asking me to add some pink to her room. We upgraded her bedding (pink!), added a “princess” light (chandelier), and hung up an egg chair. In the other corner is an antique door turned into a bookshelf that’s whitewashed with pink paint. I came up with this whimsical accent to tie in all of the pink elements while creating a contrast of hard forms and flowing texture. The perfect blend of modern-girly accent with enough pink and sparkle to fit the bill! She loves her new wall and it really does make an impact in the space.

Before I could begin working on my accent, I needed to prep the room. I pulled all of her furniture away from the walls, patched holes as needed, and painted the walls a new base color: Paper White by Benjamin Moore.

After painting the room I took a photo and used Markup on my phone to do some rough sketching so that I could see the general shape that I would be painting pink.


I measured down from the ceiling and up from the floor to get the rough size of my stripe. I wanted a free-flowing soft shape to contrast the hard lines of the Washi Tape. I also wanted the Washi tape to overlap both the pink and the wall below it. Originally my pink band was about 32" wide and started 16" below the ceiling on the right side, and 32" off the floor on the left side. I took four small pieces of tape to mark this diagonal space. In totality I wanted about 1/3 of the wall to be covered with either the tape or paint.


For clarity:

Left side tape marks were at 32" from ground and 64" from ground.

Right side tape marks were 16" from ceiling and 48" from ceiling.

After painting between my marks I stepped back. This band was too narrow and needed to be made more substantial.


This was much better than the alternative, it's easier to add paint and make the area bigger rather than try to cover up areas that have gotten a bit carried away.

After expanding the pink band I went back and added a second coat of paint.

While waiting for the paint to dry I began to cut my Washi tape into 3" sections. I formed them into "plus signs" and stacked them on top of one another. The glitter tape is nice because the texture prevents the tape from adhering strongly to itself when stacked this way. For this wall I ended up using a little over 2 rolls of tape.

I began by placing my first tape pieces 5" from the door frame, and 20" up from the floor.


I then placed a tape plus sign 10" above the original. For the next column I staggered height so that the first piece was 10" from the door frame but 25" up from the ground. Using my level I checked both pieces of tape to make sure they were aligned before pressing them firmly against the wall.


After getting the first two columns set I worked horizontally across the room using my level as both a level and tape measurer. The center of each plus sign is 10" from the ones above/below/to the left/to the right.


As I worked my way across the room I shifted my rows upwards to follow the height of the stripe.



Tip: I had already started placing my tape plus sign with the horizontal tape piece in front of the vertical one, but found that it would have been easier for me to align the pieces if I had shifted my plus signs to have all of the horizontal pieces in back of the vertical ones. If I were to do this over I would start the project with them lined up this way instead.

I was nervous that I had ruined the freshly painted wall by adding the pink band. The addition of the Washi tape made a world of difference and allowed the full vision to come to light. The steps go quickly, but waiting for paint to fully dry before putting up the tape does extend the overall time of the project a bit.

After a few days went by I went back and firmly rubbed all of the Washi tape with my finger to make sure they had adhered. There have been no signs of peeling or movement of the tape since the project was completed.

I got a full gallon of paint because it was on sale, but needed very little. One quart would have been plenty.

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  2 questions
  • Judy Judy on Apr 15, 2020

    Love the stripe. Can you please tell me the color of the paint. Thank you

  • Trish Trish on Apr 15, 2020

    I love the idea of washi tape I was just wondering if it sticks good enough it will last for a long time?

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  • Tthed Tthed on Apr 22, 2020

    What a creative idea! Lucky daughter!

  • Ellis Ellis on Apr 17, 2022

    It's pretty, exactly right for a young girl. The four-poster bed is beautiful, too.

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