I'm not sure if it's the colder weather or something else, but I've been getting moodier in my decor lately. While I'm still a firm believer that white paint fixes everything, I've been seeing beautiful kitchens, living rooms, and offices painted black and have been getting the itch to paint a room in my house black. My master bedroom has been in flux since we moved in. It was the first room that I removed the wall paper in and painted, but then I did nothing else with it. It has sat for three years. No headboard, no design, no cohesive furniture. I finally had enough and decided to give it a little love, starting with a geometric feature wall. This project was super easy to do and cost me less than $50 in supplies. Part of what spurred this project was a gift card I had to Home Depot from my wedding shower. I used it to purchase an airstrike nailer and wanted a project to try it out with. I had been seeing board and batten walls all over the interwebs and wanted to try one, but ultimately decided to go with a geometric pattern rather than a standard grid. I used 1 x 2 boards and 2 inch nails. I do not have textured walls so I didn't use the "board" part of the board and batten, thought I do regret that now and if I did it again I would (more on that later). The first thing I did was to remove the chair rail that was up on the wall. It actually came off far easier than I expected it to. Next, I filled in some holes in the wall as best I could, but my house is old and my walls are fairly beat up. If this was a forever and ever project I probably would have skim coated the wall, or put up boards to get a uniform smooth surface, but we are planning a remodel in the near future, so I skipped that, if I did it again, I wouldn't. I found a pattern for a "quilt" and used it as a rough guide for where to place the boards. I really didn't know how it would turn out or what it would look like, but I tried to concentrate the boards in the middle of the wall where a headboard wouldn't cover them. I started with one board diagonally on the wall and then built off of it. You can see the progression here. I used my circular saw to cut the boards and my speed square to figure out the angles. I did have a few gaps, but used wood filler in them. To secure the boards to the wall I used 2 inch nails and my nail gun. I did not use liquid nails because as I said this is a temporary project. If this was a permanent board and batten I definitely would have used liquid nails prior to nailing. The 1 x 2's are very light so it wasn't necessary to find the studs. This all made the project very easy to complete. Once I got going the whole process only took about an hour and a half. I decided to make a bold choice and paint the wall black, something I hadn't done before in my house (I'm usually a white/beige kinda gal). I really wanted to do the whole room, but I'm going to have to work up to that. Since I was painting the wall a dark color I didn't have to calk where the boards meet the wall. If you do this and pick a light color you will need to calk since it will cast a shadow if you don't. I may add some crown molding to the top of the wall, but overall I'm happy with how it turned out. It added character without adding "stuff" and gave the room a completely different feel. I also made a fabric headboard to go with it, but more on that later! I was worried that the black would make the room feel small, but I actually feel like it feels bigger than it did when it was a blue/grey color. I also think the black on the one wall definitely highlights the wood, though I'm still toying with painting the whole thing. All in all this project was good for me because I stepped completely out of my comfort zone, the geometric wall and the black paint were very far from my usual choices. It was easy to make and would be a great weekend project if you're looking to jazz up your existing space. Have you ever stepped completely out of your design comfort zone?
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