Beautiful diy textured feature wall 😍
Before we can chat textured feature wall - let me first provide a little context to the diy journey this stairway went through. Before it looked beautiful, it looked REALLY bad. The stairs were carpeted (and very dirty), the walls were covered in wainscotting and there was an awful overhang that closed the stair landing in. When we first moved into this home, my partner and I ripped down the wainscotting to see what was underneath, but sadly it revealed what you see below - dated shiplap. Honestly, this shiplap could have looked great with some fresh paint but this original paint was lead based and couldn’t be left exposed. I either had to strip it away or leave it untouched and cover it back up.
We covered the wall with drywall and rewired our light switch to be in a more convenient spot which I wasn’t planning for but was a pleasant surprise!
The stairs were eventually painted. I used Behr’s Porch and Patio paint in the colour Broadway Black . Why porch and patio paint? It’s durable and can handle a lot of wear and tear from your feet…and these stairs were going to see a lot of foot traffic!
With the help of family, I removed the carpet , the stairway overhang and rebuilt a section of the landing wall that had ZERO support originally.
DIY TEXTURED WALL - For the stairway wall, my goal was to create a unique feature that didn’t necessarily draw your eye at first glance but added personality, depth and warmth to this narrow space.
To create the texture I used drywall compound and 3 different complimentary shades to my living room paint colour - Behr’s Mourning Dove.
The colours I used were: Mourning Dove (the colour of my living room walls), White Flour and White Mocha.
In separate buckets, I mixed each paint colour with a good helping of drywall compound. To mix thoroughly, I used a paint mixer attached to my my drill.
Using a 6” drywall spatula, I then went to town on that wall! Starting with Mourning Dove as a base layer, I layered the compound in different directions. There is no real technique to this but try to make larger strokes at the beginning and add smaller strokes on top. Once you’re happy with the first layer, add a second layer using a new colour- for me this was White Mocha and finally White Flour as the top layer. I switched to a smaller drywall spatula at some point to change things up and even started to just use my fingers and a little paint brush. Don’t forget to let each layer dry for 30 minutes before you add your next colour/layer to give it that 3D texture. Have fun with the process and layer colours! I switched back to my base layer to bring some darker tones forward. Over all, the entire experience was a huge success!
PRO TIP: To make sure the wall wont crumbly when it’s dry, run your spatula overtop of it and try to flatten everything out lightly without losing your texture.
And there you go folks. What a transformation!! It felt so bright and beautiful and paired so well with my living room makeover.
