DIY ACCENT WALL // MODERN ACCENT WALL

Hey Brent, bring your own tools to today's episode. If you want to see how we completely transformed this ordinary looking

wall

with just a few trims and a little paint, keep watching, let's get started on this project. This is what we are working with. a built-in area right next to the front door and yes, it's a great opportunity to make it a unique space instead of just another

wall

. Now the first step of this project is one of the most fun because you can design and layout the space exactly the way. you want, I'm using a piece of molding to do it, which makes it a little easier to lay out the whole arrangement.

Then I take my speed square and my contractor square and start lining up the first segment which is going to be Basically divide this big wall into two sections. Now the beauty of this

modern

accent

wall is that you can be extremely creative and depending on your style and how much molding you really want to use in this project, you can do an extreme amount of molding. this wall or you can leave it a little more bare in some sections but add more in others, the possibility of arrangement is endless and just know that this space is approximately 9 feet high by 14 feet long, now for my wall I will be install a picture frame wall system that basically encapsulates this entire trim design and at this point, if you're trying to figure out exactly how much material you need to use on a project like this, just keep in mind that I took the square footage of the space and accounted for a 20 percent waste factor because I know there will be a lot of unique angles in the space.

I take my trusty stud finder and note exactly where each stud is located because with this large molding I want to make sure we're nailing as best as possible. as many studs as possible and as for nailing, I have my little porter cable air compactor with nailer and the nails I'm using are 2 inches long which will account for the thickness of the drywall trim and then sink it in the amounts I get. my chop saw is set up and ready to go and if you can try to take it off because you are going to go back and forth with a lot of cuts in this project and you want to make the cutting process easier for you because the more time you save here on each cut the faster You'll be able to enjoy this beautiful decorative wall or at least save yourself some wear and tear on your knees.

Right now I'm squaring the corners of this frame because I'm going to be covering all the holes and lines and the nice thing about taking the time to figure out exactly where the studs are from the beginning makes it quicker to keep in mind where you need to place the nails. immediate in my project and in most cases. On projects, you will probably have a span that is too long for one piece to cover, so you will have to join two pieces together and the best way to do this is to take your circular saw and cut at a 45 degree angle and fit together. in and of itself, that will give it a very strong hold and also facilitate a seamless look later once we caulk that seam in tight-knit corners because the drywall is a little rounded, remember you can always remove a little bit of the molding from mdf out of the corner and that way your molding will fit nice and snug against the wall.

One tool that is not necessary on this project, but is nice to have, is this simple and inexpensive angle finder, and it just makes sure that I have the correct angle set for my chop saw and in all honesty, I should have used this one on place my speed square earlier because the angle itself is closer to 46 degrees in this center section, but I just wanted to make an easy adjustment on my table saw. I sure had that account beforehand as to the molding we are using for this project, I decided to use a 1x2 mdf molding that is 10 feet long, now that is the nominal dimension and the actual realistic dimension is closer to a inch and a half wide. by half an inch thick which I thought might be small scale but after all said and done it looked beautiful and I'm very happy with the size but let me know in the comments what you think personally I also decided to use mdf. moldings versus real wood, mainly because real wood tends to bow, bend, and warp.

The mdf almost guarantees that I have very straight molding that I won't have to worry about trying to maneuver into place because it's already perfectly straight. At some point I got smarter and realized that it is much easier to just make a mark on the piece of wood rather than trying to push my tape measure to where I need it and therefore take that exact measurement of That way it was much easier to do than trying to use my tape measure in the long run, just keep that in mind in your project, at a certain point you will have to realize that you can't hit a stud every time and with that.

I actually use a little bit of Ca glue with an accelerator that way, I can drip it on the back of the MDF, apply a little bit of accelerator, hold it down for a couple of seconds and guess what piece of molding isn't going anywhere to power To give this wall a completely professional look, I recommend applying a little caulk to all the edges that touch the drywall. This adds a little extra time to this project, but it's worth it because it really gives it a much more professional look and feel because all those little cracks between the molding and the drywall are completely sealed and once painted it looks extremely sharp, but now that we have the edges clean, we also need to take care of all those nail holes. like transition periods, that's why I'm using this paint and dap patch product.

Now a couple of really good things about this paint and patch product is the fact that, one, it dries in 30 minutes, two, it doesn't shrink, three, it can be sanded, and four, it can't. It is not necessary to apply a pre-priming before applying the finished paint. You can apply the finished paint right on top and it won't make any difference to the finish. Beautiful. I apply this putty to all the nail holes and all the intersections. molding designs as well as the crack that runs up against the molding compared to the adjacent wall, I just want a clean, flush corner on this slanted frame design and no you don't have to do that, but guess what's in the details once the putty is completely clean.

I take my random orbital sander with 320 grit sandpaper and just remove all the excess material. This is extremely easy and quite satisfying because in the end you have a perfectly smooth finish and the theory is that there are no seams to be seen once you apply the finished paint and as always if you are interested in purchasing any of these tools or products that are come in this video, I'll leave links in the description box below. Okay, we have all of our moldings ready to go. it's caulked it's filled it's sanded we've taped everything down now let's start painting for this project we're using a benjamin moore flat finish regal select paint now this is a pretty thick paint as you can see here but it really complements the space and gives it a sense of depth and contrast compared to the rest of the walls, keep that in mind, especially with

accent

walls.

Now with this project we will be using our wagner flexio 3000 sprayer which worked perfectly for my last project because it was how to paint cabinets. I added about five to ten percent water to the mixture to dilute it properly and the only difference here is that we are actually using the nozzle larger spray tip versus the fine finish spray nozzle that we used in In our last video, this larger spray nozzle really provides a nice thick coat of paint, but it's not too thick, it applies extremely smooth and very well with no drips and I didn't have I have to use a single brush for this entire wall, which is actually very good.

It's good, even if it's latex paint, you still want to wear a respirator, especially when you're in a closed environment like this, so keep that in mind when you're spraying because there are a lot of unique angles and variations within the space that I actually did. I saved a lot of time and energy by spraying it compared to a traditional brush and roller and therefore painting this entire space with a single coat took me only about 20 minutes which is amazing. I let the first coat dry and then went back and applied a The second coat is lighter than the first.

Now the second layer really doesn't have to be very thick. I just want to make sure that I'm building those paint barriers and therefore the paint itself will be more durable over its lifespan. One of the key factors here is that once you're done with the second layer and you're not going to move on to a third or fourth, you need to proceed to remove all the tape and miscellaneous protection around the gap that I like to remove. when it's a little damp before it dries completely because I feel like it's a little easier to break those edges cleanly and consistently across the entire wall, you can certainly wait until the entire wall is completely dry before removing all the protection . but personally that's how I'm doing it on this project but one of the best parts about this project is that it's easy to clean and all we have to do is reinstall our outlet cover plates and we're done with the amazing transformation of everything this project. the space really culminates with an accent wall like this, it's bold, it's unique, it's different and the moment you walk into the space it really transforms the feel of this room.

You gotta love a project that only takes a day to do like this one and the one I'm really proud to say is a beautiful, sexy beast, oh yeah.