Before & After: Maura’s $13 DIY Wall Art!
Maura had recently made the move to a small studio apartment with 12-foot walls, a lot of blank space to fill with a small decorating budget. One Saturday after breakfast, an idea on how to transform her dining area with DIY painted wall art came to her.
From Maura:
I had purchased 6 sample sizes of paint recently for a slow-to-progress project that I decided to use right away for this new project. They were four shades from one Behr color card: Duchess Rose, Juicy Passionfruit, Wet Coral and Fire Island. There was a buy-2-get-1-free sale on samples happening at Home Depot when I purchased these, so I bought 2 extras of the mid-tones and spent $8 on paint with leftovers. I measured out my rectangle, 6″ in from all sides, and taped the design in 1″ painter’s tape. It took a couple re-tapings, after stepping back and deciding an angle wasn’t right, but once I had it set, I went over the edges with a credit card. A lot of stripe tutorials seem to recommend sealing the edges with wall color paint before starting, but I always skip that step and haven’t found it to be a problem.
How she planned out painting the sections:
I decided that the darkest color should sit in the corner, to go with the light on the wall. The next lightest shade was painted on either side until the lightest shade was opposite the darkest. In this pattern, I needed 5 colors, so I mixed some of the lightest with some leftover white to get the lightest shade. It would have been easiest if I had 5 small rollers and 5 paint trays, but I didn’t, so I used one paint brush that I thoroughly washed between colors. Each section was painted with two coats. I love the way this project came together, and with an $5 roll of painter’s tape, the whole thing cost me only $13.
See more about this project on Maura’s blog.
Thank you Maura!