Day 1:

Spur of the moment projects that cascade into a larger projects are my jam. I mean who doesn't just clean behind the computer desk and then get a great idea to paint the whole wall? My mind is constantly thinking of new projects in my house to keep me occupied while my kids are at school or napping. This spur of the moment project came, like I stated earlier, when I was cleaning behind the computer desk. I don't think it has been moved since we moved in over 7 years ago. YUCK! And I found some really gross things I will spare you the details.

After I vacuumed behind I noticed some worn paint where the computer desk sat and I was just going to paint and patch those small parts but then my mind started racing and one thing led to another. I decided instead of just repainting the build grade plainness I wanted to make an accent wall.

This little pocket fits a computer perfectly, but lacks character. I get a lot of my inspirations just by looking at different Pinterest pages or even wall paper. I didnt have a lot of time or money to get this wall done so the $300 wallpaper idea was out.

PAINT!

Paint can be your best friend with budget friendly projects. Look around your house. Do you have any spare paint you used once for another wall? How about a spare paint brush? As it just so happens I had many gallon size paint cans that were half full. This is the perfect project to use up unused paint.

First up I painted the back wall with some Behr Pure White I had laying around. I don't like using tape to tape off the walls I'm not painting. Personally I can do a quicker job at just cutting in with a really good paint brush. I know some people swear by using tape, which is awesome, but I usually dont have extra at my house. So cutting in with my paint brush is the fastest for me.

I use a roller for the rest of the painting. I'm not that crazy to do the whole wall with a brush. :) After one coat I'm getting really excited at how this is turning out.

Make sure you let the paint dry in between coats or else your paint will start doing naughty things. I tried to hurry a project along and didn't let the paint dry in between caots and the bottom layer of paint started peeling up when I put on the second coat. It was so bad!!

The second layer went on quicker than the first because I didnt have to cut in the boarders. Even with just the white wall it looks so much better! I could only get this far on day 1 so I had to move the desk back and wait until the next day to finish my accent wall.

Day 2:

This was the fun day. I used a $4 paint sample to use as my accent paint (hence the $4 accent wall title). You could even just use paint that you have at your house and it would be a free project! (EVEN BETTER!!)

After a lot of diliberating I decided to do a fun accent. These slash marks are easy to control. With my fancy piece of cardboard I cut out the angle I wanted the slashes to go and just went for it. Using the cardboard as a guide I slowly painted THIN marks. I have to emphasize "thin" because I didnt know how thick I really wanted the marks. It is easier to go back over them with paint if you want them thicker but not so easy to make them thinner.

I'm a little OCD on symmetry so I made sure there was going to be the same amount of columns going down the wall by knowing the center of the wall and how much I had to work with.

This whole wall took about 30 mins to complete the initial slash marks.

And after I was done with the first layer I decided to make the marks a little thicker. So I want back over them, using the same technique with the cardboard but just pushed the brush down a little more.

The wall looks amazing with the desk pushed back. All it needed was a little bit of dressing up and project complete.

I found this cork board in my basement. I added the white trim and painted the sides dark blue and called it good.

This space is now another happy place in my home and I am glad I completed it in a matter of a few days.

... or is it?

(part 2 coming soon)