For months on end, I’ve been sharing snippets of my living room decor on Instagram Stories, giving my followers little peeks into the transformation. And now, I’m beyond excited to finally unveil the full look! But before diving into the whole room, I want to start with the star of the show—the super easy yet incredibly impactful accent wall that has completely changed the vibe of our living room.
This accent wall project was born out of inspiration from a stunning teal and blue version I stumbled upon on Pinterest, originally featured on Apartment Therapy. With the other walls in the room painted a clean, crisp white, I knew I wanted to add an accent wall that would be visually engaging. However, I didn’t want it to be so overwhelming that it dominated the entire space. It was like searching for the perfect rug—you want something with texture and interest, but not so busy that it becomes the sole focus of the room. This particular design seemed to strike that ideal balance.
The most time – consuming part of the process was deciding on the color. I knew I wanted something on the darker side, but I was determined to steer clear of black or grey. We had black walls in our previous living room, and while we loved that look, we were eager to create something new. I also had a preference for a cool color palette, leaning towards blues or purples rather than warm tones like reds or oranges. After much deliberation, I narrowed it down to either a rich teal or a deep green. Trey and I were both indecisive, each having our own leanings but still unsure. In true modern – blogger fashion, I turned to the internet for help. I created a poll on our Instagram Stories, and the responses were evenly split. However, green emerged as the winner, and that was the push we needed. We chose “Chard” from Behr paint, and with the color finally decided, it was time to get to work.
I embarked on a thrifting adventure, scouring a couple of thrift stores to find the perfect picture frames. Since the wall is quite long, I ended up buying a substantial number of frames. The best part? All of them together cost just a little over $100, thanks to their second – hand status. This made the project incredibly affordable, as the main expenses were really just the frames, nails, and paint.
One weekend, my friend Ethan came to my rescue, and we got started on the painting. The wall was already white, so we skipped the priming step and went straight for two coats of the chosen green paint. While the paint was drying, I took the time to clean the frames, removing any glass and hardware. Once the wall was dry, we hung the frames and then painted them right on the wall. I experimented by priming a couple of frames to see if it would reduce the amount of paint needed, but I didn’t notice a significant difference. Whether primed or not, all the frames required two coats.
After everything was dry, I did a final inspection, looking at the wall from every angle and touching up any part of the frames that still needed paint. You could certainly choose to paint the frames before hanging them, but with so many frames and two dogs constantly shedding, finding a suitable space in my home to paint them all was a challenge. Painting them after they were hung was a more practical solution for me.
Once the accent wall was complete, we added the finishing touches. A small table, some lush plants, and two ottomans to store throw blankets (perfect for movie nights) were brought in. The result? I couldn’t be happier with how the project turned out. It serves as the perfect backdrop for our movie screen, which descends from the ceiling at the click of a remote. I can’t wait to share more about our projector and screen in a future post, but for now, I hope you love the look of our new accent wall as much as we do. And a huge thank you to everyone who voted on the color—your input helped us create a space we truly adore!
