Half-Painted Wall Tutorial

I’ve been in love with the half-painted wall look for quite a while so after doing one for my daughter’s room I thought I would share a small tutorial in case you want to recreate this look too!  This is a fairly easy DIY.  It would definitely be easier with two people but I managed it by myself.

For this project you will need:

-Paint (white and a color of your choice)

-FrogTape

-A measuring tape and level

-A paint brush, roller and paint tray

Start by painting the top half of your wall white.  This will provide a blank canvas for the colored section to pop from and will keep the space balanced.  (I used a “High Hide white base” from Sherwin Williams in an eggshell finish for my white paint)

Once the top half is dry you can choose a height for the painted wall to go up to.  (I wanted it just above my daughter’s headboard so I chose 42″ high.)  Measure your desired distance up from the floor and mark it on the wall.  After measuring and marking, move over about 12″ and measure up the wall again and mark it again.  Repeat this process around the whole perimeter of the room.

Next, take a long level and draw lines connecting all of the marks on the wall. (**Note.  The floors in my house were uneven so there was a small margin of error in connecting some of the marks that I measured from off the ground.  This is why using the level is crucial to give you that perfectly even line across the wall.)

Once, you have your line drawn in pencil start taping along it.  It is best to only tape about 1-2 ft at a time so the tape doesn’t get twisted or warped.

And tape and tape and tape…This was the longest part of the process.

I also learned an AMAZING tip about getting perfect tape lines! I came across it on the chrislovesjulia blog.  She spoke with a paint expert at the store who told her to run a damp cloth along the Frogtape after you have it in place and it activates the special technology in the tape that makes it stick so perfectly.  She explains it much better in her tutorial here but just adding this extra step worked perfectly for me!! I also chose to use the yellow FrogTape because it is made for more delicate surfaces like fresh paint.  I was able to tape right on to the white paint within a few hours of it drying.

Once its all taped and you’ve run a damp cloth across it to seal the tape, you can paint some color into your world!

Then Voilà! You have a colorful, bohemian room to hang out in!  Adding color to a room is so fulfilling and really breathes joy into any space.  This is definitely a project I would do again!  You can check out the full bedroom reveal here.

I hope this inspires you to go paint some of your own walls! Thanks for reading!