Beautiful Blue Ombre Nursery Wall

January 2024

We are very fortunate to have a strong, beautiful, intelligent boy in our life. To say we were over the moon to learn we were having another would be a deep understatement. As a bonus, our gloomy, beige, unused spare room gets a much-needed makeover. To which my wife almost immediately tasked me with a blue blended accent wall.

Last year, I added a painted headboard to our primary bedroom that involved some blending, so I was feeling pretty confident in my ability to make it happen.

However, I made one mistake after another. If you are entertained by other people’s mishaps, you’ll appreciate this post.

Mental Health Takeaway

I feel like this is where I should note that the point of this, and all of my projects, is not perfection. My goals are only to not be overwhelmed by the task, to enjoy the process and to appreciate what I am capable of. 

Also, you can’t ‘not suck’ at something you’ve never attempted. Unless you are those people who get everything right the first time. If you are, I am so proud of you, but also I hope you struggle to find the end of every roll of tape you pick up in your life.

Step 1. Clean, Repair, & Tape

We’ve known that one day this room would be a nursery for another baby, but we also knew that we had a couple of years before that happened. So, I was in no rush to start it.

Until now.

In the last 24 months, this space has served as a catch all.  Specifically, all the baby hand-me-downs we were saving.

It was also secondary storage for the things in my life I was refusing to part with for various sentimental reasons.

Cleaning this room was cathartic all on it’s own. Like a great yeeting of past experiences that no longer served me.

I started with remnants of college. As a Photo major, I had years worth of cringy photographs to sort through and ultimately let go of. I was no longer the black-haired, emo artist I once self-declared. 

This was followed by flipping through old CD cases, eliminating unused gym equipment, and starting a donate pile of decor I had grown out of.

Then I was able to move onto cleaning.

WASH YOUR WALLS. (Says the homeowner who really only spot cleans her own walls.)

I do however think that washing walls before you paint is very important. Unless you are into making artifacts out of dust, dog hair, and greasy hand prints. 

This also gave me a close-up look at what I was working with. Shoutout to whoever painted these walls, as they were likely blindfolded.

Other than splattered paint, there were quite a few things to fix.

Learning from prior mistakes, I wanted to take my time. The goal is to appreciate the space when it’s finished, not wish I had done a better job.

So I started patching holes and filling cracks.

This used to be my go-to, and since I still have some, it’s good for small patches. 

(However, if you are in the drywall area of your hardware store, there is a sheetrock, ready-mixed, joint compound that I have found is easier to work with.)

I hate how much I love to caulk and the difference it makes. Seriously – Trim, windows, bathrooms – it just makes everything look finished.

Alongside learning how to create the perfect bead, it’s helpful to have a rag and a tiny bowl of water as you go. This helps make lines look *chef’s kiss*.

I don’t usually tape off trim when I am painting a wall, but in the case where I am painting trim that runs up against carpet, I make an exception.

Working in an even rotation, I taped, caulked, painted, let dry, and painted again. Once the walls were evenly white, I was ready to finally start the accent wall.

This is where I made my first mistake.

Step 2. Paint the base Coat.

Since I knew I was going to be blending, I wanted to tape the edges where the blending would stop.

Somehow, I forgot to caulk the tape line, adding extra work for me at the end.

Immediately after starting to paint, I made my second mistake. I correctly marked the wall into thirds and I left some space between to allow for mixed colors, BUT, I should have started by painting the entire wall in the lightest color.

Not doing so made even more work in the long run having to do multiple rounds of blended color to cover the base white.

Not a clean line.

I remember taking this picture, and saying, out loud, “Sh*t”.

The only logical thing to do from here was to move forward. 

Step 3. Mix & Blend

I like to start from the darker color and work my way to the lighter. After I had my three base colors on the wall, I mixed about a 50/50 ratio of the middle and darkest color, then separately,  the middle and lightest color.

I started filling in the areas between the 3 main colors.

I like to use the sponge method, but I have seen a number of other options! The biggest thing to remember is to work with fresh paint. Painting in sections makes this much easier.

This was way harder than I thought it would be!

The blues were dramatically different when they were wet then when they dried. This made it easy in the moment to blend the area, but if I had to take a break and come back it was difficult to be sure the mix was light/dark enough to match up. 

If we’re not counting just how arduous that was as an official mistake, then we can refer to the next one as my third.

Working mostly at night after the toddler was in bed, in lighting that doesn’t do any favors, I did not see the bigger mess I was creating.

Each time I would wring out my sponge, small drops of blue tinted water would scatter. I didn’t realize how much of mess I was making until the next day when daylight showcases the spotted carpet and walls.

Not pictured, but trust me, I was annoyed.

Step 4. Give myself a little grace

I kept different mixes of paint covered with cling wrap just in case I felt the need to go back and do some additional coats.

At the end of the day however, my wife was happy. The wall seems imperfectly complete. 

This was the part where I needed to step away, and start to get excited about other parts of nursery building. Such as where to store the mountain of diapers and boxes of clothes.

The wall is not flawless, but I’m feeling a little more fulfilled to be personally creating a space that I think the new little dude will be pretty happy about.