It's official...I'm going DIY crazy! I'm now drawing permanent marker lines on my walls, haha! The indoor time is making me zoom around the house faster than Lucy does when she gets a case of the zoomies. My husband is always telling me I have too much on the go and to finish one project before I move onto the next (insert eye role) but I can't function like that! As soon as I get an idea I have to feed that creativity right then and there, it's like a drug! I get asked all the time, how do you have so much energy to do all of those projects so fast? Well....I don't know if I have any more energy than you guys, but I know that I looooove to paint and I looooooove to bring spaces alive with creativity and an idea! I think if you love to do those two things than you can pretty up your home in so many ways. Just grab a paint brush, an idea....maybe find one here on my blog, or by other instagramers, maybe Pinterest, or your own fabulous ideas.
Case in point today's blog post. I got the idea to sharpie shiplap my walls from Pinterest. I saw people were doing this in their entry ways, bathrooms, even entire living rooms and they all swore it looks so real!! I knew then and there I was going to give it a try in my kids bathroom. I was thinking of doing a wallpaper or peel and stick tile, but I already had the perfect white wall all ready to go so I decided to give it a try. An hour later I was done and I'm excited to show you guys just how easy it is!!
Supplies You Will Need:
Fine Point Black Sharpie
Long Level
Small Level
Ruler
Step stool
*Oh and obviously the most important thing you will also want is a white wall. Or you could even have a light coloured wall or neutral wall, light enough the black lines will appear.
I started on the far right corner of my bathroom wall and worked my way down with my long level. If you don't have a long level and you need to do a large wall I would highly recommend getting one, there are so many affordable sets on Amazon and it's one of those tools that you should have in your arsenal anyways! I don't think we could do 90% of our projects without a level.
First thing I do is use a ruler to mark 6" down from the ceiling. This is how wide I want my shiplap to be. I make a few small dots along the wall for each board so I have a guide for my proper width. Then I take my long level and butt it up against the markings and make sure I'm level. Always trust your level over your markings. Your level won't fail you! Be sure that little floating bubble is perfectly in the center of those two little black lines.
Now take your black sharpie and draw a line across the top of the level. I tried to start on one end of the level and draw as long as I could without stopping. I had to go back and forth over the line about two times to make sure the line was even thickness. It's ok if you make mistakes providing you still have your wall colour to do some touch ups. Where I made mistakes I just took my White Dove colour and wet over the black areas with a small craft brush to make them disappear.
Here's a little video of the beginning stages, also please pay no attention to my bad hair, weird facial expressions I make when I'm in my own world, and my butt directly in your line of sight, lol!
Continue making your lines going down as far as you can with your level. Once I reached the toilet I had to get creative and flexible to make it work. I used my ruler mostly and smaller level wherever I could. I made most of my markings with my ruler for the 6" spacing and drew the line with my ruler as well. It was a tad challenging to use the level at the same time as holding the ruler around the toilet. So I scrapped the level and just trusted my markings and drew the lines over my ruler.
When you are done your full row of lines, go back up to the top and start using your old lines as a guide to place your level across about 5 ", then just make sure you are all level and start drawing your lines again working your way down the wall. I did 3 long rows in total to do my entire wall.
I also decided to "install" (hehe) some more shiplap on the window wall in my bathroom. What do you guys think?? My husband literally thought it was real and had to get up close to really tell!
FAQ's I got on Instagram:
Will the sharpie run when the room gets moisture in it from the shower?
From what I've read you can seal over top of the Sharpie shiplap with a sealer like poly. I am going to take a chance and see how it holds up on it's own first. I mean it is a permanent marker, I can't see it just streaming down my bathroom walls....but I will keep you guys posted on that if that disaster does occur!
Can you do this over a textured walls?
I would say no...unless you want wiggly lines?? Sadly you would need to remove texture o better yet just actually shiplap over that old textured wall!
What sheen is my wall paint?
I sharpie'd over top of my eggshell paint, I would even sharpie over satin paint. I wold avoid semi gloss as that's a slippery surface for the marker to stick to.
If you guys have any other questions at all shoot me a message! Have a great day and happy DIY-ing!
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