Readers, how is lockdown going for you all? Staying sane? Painting fences? Doing DIY?
We moved into our New Build last year and waited as long as
we could before we started to decorate.
I’m nervous about using wallpaper on new walls and also know it’s a bit
of a pain to get down again, so anything we’ve attempted so far, has been paint
only.
Over on Instagram, I’ve seen loads of cool techniques with
paint, including geometric walls. For
those of you who don’t know, geometric painted walls are created by making
patterns using masking tape, then painting the sections in different colours.
When you peel away the tape, there’s a base colour left underneath which breaks
up the sections and creates a geometric pattern.
Painted geometric walls are really easy to achieve, look
great as a painted feature wall in a room and can be toned in to work with
other colours in the room. Our geometric
painted wall took a Sunday afternoon and evening to complete (so around 8
hours, for 2 coats of paint) and is an amazing addition to downstairs.
I’ve pulled together a What Claire Did, Top Tips Blog Post,
showing you how easy it is to create a geometric painted wall in your own home!
If you're a keen DIYer why not check out my post on up-cycling furniture?
Watch YouTube
We had no idea how to do this and went straight to YouTube
to watch some time lapse videos of other DIYers creating their geometric painted
walls first. It looked easy and turns
out it is.
Use Frog Tape
I cannot state this enough. Spend the money, buy good
masking tape. We used the green 36mm Frog
Tape to create the gaps on the walls between colours. Make sure to mask off the
skirting, edges, ceiling and any plugs you have. Make sure the tape is properly stuck down at
the edge, as this is what you’ll peel back to create the straight lines on your
geometric wall.
I’d highly recommend Frog Tape for general painting as well,
not just for geometric walls, as there’s no paint bleed and the finish is much
better for a professional looking job.
Stick to A Few Colours and Tones
This is really important, keep to 3 or 4 colours max. You want it to look stylish, not an art project
unless you’re into that.
We used two colours – a jewel toned emerald green, a dark
grey and a lighter grey.
Less colours and shades or tones of the same colour, keep it
looking clean and not “too much”.
Pick A Base Colour
We were fortunate the wall was painted white underneath, so
we could get straight to masking the pattern on our geometric painted
wall. Think about what colour you want
where the strips are pulled off. If you
want anything other than the colour the wall already is, you’ll need to paint
the entire wall first, let it dry for a few days/weeks, then start the process
of painting on top. Leave PLENTY OF TIME
for the paint underneath to dry, before you start more colours on top.
Don’t Buy Too Much
Paint
We bought 3 full size cans for our paint job (cost around £50ish). We had LOADS left and I mean LOADS. We’ve since painted the downstairs bathroom,
the upstairs office and a feature wall in the spare room, with the paint we used.
Tester pots are a cheap way to achieve this look on the wall.
2-3 tester pots in each shade/colour
would probably allow you to do one wall in a medium sized room.
Or buy the bigger tins and do what we did – paint more
walls. By using similar colours, you
create a flow throughout the rooms in the house.

Mix Big and Small
Sections
Keep your geometric painted sections in different sizes, to
make the wall interesting. The point is
to create a cool pattern, not to have something measured out. Be careful not to
go too small though, otherwise your wall can begin to look cluttered. We divided a total of 14 sections across the
whole wall in a mix of sizes. Choose
your main colour (in our case it was grey, in 2 shades) for the majority of the
wall, then pick an accent colour (we used the emerald green) to paint in a few
key sections across the wall.
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Before
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After |
Bonus Tip – Be Patient
Before you start peeling off the masking tape, please make
sure your paint is fully dry. Wait at
least 4 hours. You don’t want paint runs
and smudges because you peeled the frog tape off your geometric painted wall
too early. It’s worth the wait and incredibly
satisfying once you start the peeling!