I could just pretend that wall doesn’t exist and not show it in any pictures. Or I could come up with a way to camouflage the pieces and turn that wall into a highlight rather than an eyesore!
Time Day
Cost Low
Difficulty Easy
After your wall is clean and dry, remove any hardware like light switch and outlet covers from the wall being painted and use painter’s tape to section off the perimeter. Don’t forget to tape around the molding of doors if the wall you’re painting has one. Tip: Lay down a drop cloth to keep the floor and baseboards clean.
2
Use a 2″ or 2 ½” angled brush and Emerald Interior Acrylic Latex Paint – Flat (Naval SW 6244) to cut in the corners of your accent wall. Then use a 9″ roller with a ½” nap to fill in the rest of your wall. Tip: Rolling in a W shape helps ensure the paint is applied evenly with the best coverage.
Once the paint has fully dried (about 4-6 hours), pull off the painter’s tape at a 45-degree angle. Tip: Removing painter’s tape in a slow and steady motion at a 45-degree angle helps ensure crisp lines.
4
Place your star stencil on the wall and secure all four sides with painter’s tape so it doesn’t move during paint application. Tip: We created our own stencils using mylar and made three different star sizes including small, medium and large.
Dip a sponge brush into Emerald Interior Acrylic Latex Paint – Semi-Gloss (High Reflective White SW 7757) and lightly dab over the stencil making sure all of the star’s edges are fully painted. Let the paint dry before repeating the process with a second coat. Tip: A little goes a long way – lightly dip your sponge brush in paint and dab off any excess paint to keep it from oversaturating the stencil.
How to Paint a Night Sky Accent Wall
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This accent wall only needed a few basic supplies, which was one of the things I loved about it! Here’s what I used:
Dark Paint. Black, dark gray, or a dark blue would all work. I used Behr Dark Secret, which is very, very dark gray.
White Paint Pen (I used this one.)
Painter’s Tape (optional)
Step 2- Paint your wall.
I started by painting my wall in the dark paint color, Behr Dark Secret. Since my ultimate goal was to hide the TV and keyboard as well as possible, I just covered the entire wall evenly with paint.
Dark Secret is not one of Behr’s Marquee colors, but I still had it mixed in the Marquee paint because it gives the best coverage of any paint I’ve used. I only had to do one coat of paint plus a few little touchups here and there. (This isn’t an ad for Behr– I just really love their Marquee paint!!)
While I painted my wall evenly, Carrie from Lovely Etc. also did a starry accent wall in her home, and she added lighter spots on her wall so that the it would look more dimensional like a night sky. It turned out beautifully, so if you just want a star wall and aren’t really camouflaging like I was, that is definitely an option to consider. You can see her helpful tutorial here.
Painter’s tape is your friend.
I just cut in on the edges of my painted wall by hand, but if I was doing it again, I would definitely use painter’s tape to help make a crisper line.
Even with a fairly steady hand, when there is a dark color meeting a much lighter color, any variation in the line is obvious, and it didn’t come out nearly as crisp as I would have liked. Lesson learned!
Step 3- Add the “stars.”
My “stars” were really just dots that I made with a white paint pen. I did mostly tiny dots over most of the wall, but here and there I would make bigger dots to add some variation. I also added in some thicker groupings of dots to look like shooting stars.
For the shooting stars, I found that I liked the look best when I had one bigger circle at the “point” of the star, and then a bunch of smaller dots fanning away from it in a loose triangular shape.
I also did some clusters that were more amoeba-like just to change it up a bit. If you’re really ambitious, you could add in some constellations as well.
I didn’t have a grand plan going in with the stars. I just was sure to make them random rather can creating a pattern. (Which is harder than it sounds. Our eyes automatically try to create pattern, I think.)
To make sure I was maintaining my randomness with my star patterns, I would just step back every once in a while to see the entire wall at once. I could then spot any areas that needed more stars or where I needed to create some variation.
TIP
All your paints and supplies, even the sea sponges, can be purchased at home or hardware stores. Pick paints that are all of the same type—semi-gloss or matt. Gloss and semi-gloss are easier to clean for a kid’s room. If you want to get really fancy, extend the sky partway onto the ceiling or cover the entire ceiling with sky.
Don’t add a lot of extras if you intend to hang a lot of artwork on the wall. Otherwise the two may compete for attention.
