DIY Wood Trim Accent Wall

I think this wood trim accent wall we did in Lincoln’s room is the perfect blend of styles. From the wall color, to the design, we worked together to come up with something that both mom & kid were happy with! Lincoln loves the outdoors and wanted a bit of a rustic, moutain-y feel to his room. I can definitely get on board with that, but don’t like to get too theme-y because I know how quickly styles can change. And I didn’t want an overly heavy cabin feel to the room. I thought a color accent wall would be the perfect way to give Lincoln some color to his room, while adding the wood trim could give a mountain type feel to it. I wanted a bit of green to the color, he wanted a bit of blue, and this color (it’s Behr Mountain Pine) is the perfect combination of that. We intentionally made our design have a slight mountain look to it, while adding some extra pieces in to also give a slight geometric, modern feel to it. When one of my cousins saw the wall, she said, “love the subtle mountain feel of the walls!” and I was like yes, just what we were aiming for! Adding wood trim to the wall was actually fairly easy and has a big impact. I highly recommend sketching out your design on paper first and tweaking it from there. We also drew our lines in chalk when we put it on the wall so that we could get an idea of how it looked and make any adjustments needed. I actually loved the contrast of the wood trim on the wall, and almost left the wood trim pieces unpainted; but knowing a wood bed and wood shelf would be against the wall, we opted to paint it so the bed and shelf would stand out.Materials:

– 1×8 pine board
– table saw
– power planer
– compressor and nail gun
– framing square/speed square
– straightedge
– level
– pencil/chalk
– spackling compound
Directions:

Sketch out a rough draft of your wall design on paper.

Cut 1-1/4” strips out of the 1×8 board using the tablesaw. Use the power planer to remove the saw marks from the edges. Using the tablesaw cut the 1-1/4” strips in half which will make two pieces approximately 5/16” x 1-1/4”.

Draw your design on the wall using pencil or chalk (we used chalk so we could see it against the dark wall color). We found it easiest to start at the peaks of our triangles. Determine the height of the peak and using a speed square and a level, draw the lines and then extend the lines as far as needed using a straightedge. In our design all of the lines intersect at a 90 degree angle except for the two under the peak which are at a 45 degree angle. Continue drawing out your design until all of the lines are in place.

Using the lines on the wall as your reference for measurement, cut the 5/16” x 1-1/4” strips to length using a square to draw the line, and a hand saw to cut them (you could also use a mitre saw). Nail the pieces to the wall, covering your line marks as you go. Continue cutting and nailing until you have completed your design. Fill the nail holes with spackling compound, allow to dry and sand flush with the wood. Paint the wood strips.
You can see Lincoln’s full room tour here (sources are listed there as well), and the DIY for his desk here. We’ll be sharing more from this room in the upcoming weeks!

-Manda