Frog painter’s tape is a favorite tool in my arsenal for DIY projects. Recently, I’ve used it to create a beautiful plaid pattern accent wall. I’m so proud of how it came out!
Having an accent wall in your home, whether it is in your bedroom, your office, or your living area, is a good way to show off your decorative style. More importantly, it can help define your space. You can bring life to a plain area, create a natural division to an open space, or highlight an architectural feature in your home. In short, an accent wall has multiple purposes.
If you’ve been dreaming of having an accent wall but feel intimidated to do it yourself, I’m here to walk you through it. Follow my tips and step-by-step tutorial below.
Creating a Plaid Check Accent Wall with Frog Tape
Before you get started, it’s important to plan your DIY accent wall. It’s part of the fun too!
For this plaid check pattern project, choosing your colors and your ideal spacing are the two main components.
Create a Mood Board
To help inspire you and come to a decision, I recommend creating a mood board on Pinterest or looking around on Instagram. This is where I drew my initial inspiration for my bedroom accent wall. I fell in love with the plaid design. It’s eye-catching and visually appealing. It created a stunning focal point to our master bedroom.
This time around I wanted to experiment with the same design to have cohesion between my two spaces. I think the final result came out amazing!
Here’s how I did it.
DIY Plaid Pattern on Your Walls
Step 1
Prepare your walls. Clean off any dust and dirt. Fill in any nail holes with spackling and sand down once the spackling is dry.
Step 2.
Paint your walls with two coats of the base paint color if needed. If you are using the existing paint color, touch up areas with your existing paint color.
Step 3.
Use a scrap piece of hardboard to create your unique plaid pattern using a combination of 0.94 inches delicate frog tape and 1.88 inches of multi-surface tape. For lines you want closer together with less than an inch spacing, use the 0.94 inches delicate frog tape.
For larger spacing between lines, use 1.88 inches multi-surface frog tape. This frog tape size can also be used to create the thin lines in between the large spacing.
Step 4.
Transfer your pattern to the walls using a laser level or a pencil and ruler vertical direction.
Step 5.
Paint the pattern with the color you selected. Apply the first coat and wait until it’s slightly dry and then put on the second coat.
Step 6.
Start to pull off the frog tape as the paint is wet. Wait until the paint completely dries and start working on your pattern for the horizontal direction.
Then repeat, step 5
Step 7.
Remove all the frog tape, admire your work and style your space as desired!
A Couple Tips on Painting
Painting can be intimidating, especially as a beginner. Here are a few things I learned that are important to keep in mind:
1. Use high-quality paint brushes and rollers.
2. Use the paint sheen (i.e. matte, eggshell, satin/pearl, semi-gloss) suited for your surface.
3. Take your time to prep and as result, the painting process moves quicker.
4. Protect areas and floors with drop cloth.
5. Prep your surface, covering holes with spackle, sanding down for a smooth surface, and using tack cloths to remove dirt.
6. Use high-quality paint with good coverage and high adhesion to minimize spatters.
7. If your painting job requires multiple days, wrap paint brushes and rollers with plastic bags tightly and store them in the fridge or freezer. If stored in the freezer, allow it to thaw before painting.
Painter’s Tape vs. Frog Tape
Frog painter’s tape is worth the little extra expense compared to regular painter’s tape. In my experience, Frog tape has the advantage of producing crisp and sharper lines.
It’s also great at keeping any paint from bleeding through. Frog tape is versatile and works on multiple surface types. For trickier fresh paint projects, they also have delicate frog tape options.
Overall, if you’re doing painting projects and DIYs I highly recommend using Frog Tape.
Create Your Own Frog Painter’s Tape Projects
Whether you’re planning to do your own accent wall or another DIY project, I recommend you keep frog tape in your DIY toolkit. Using it to create my plaid accent wall made the process so much easier.
Do you prefer frog tape or painter’s tape? Do you have an accent wall in your home?
I’d love to know about your projects and décor style in the comments below!
xo, Gbeke
What do you think?