ELSIE'S PATTERNED WALL AND HALF-PAINTED DOOR (+ A $500 GIVEAWAY!!) (CLOSED)

Today I am super pumped to share a few peeks of my new office space! It's almost finished. I'll be sharing the full tour soon. But first, we've teamed up with Dutch Boy Paint to share two ways to add personality to a room with paint. Both techniques are relatively simple and quick (each a one-day-or-less project!), but they make a huge visual impact. 

Let's start with the door!

Here's the door before. Just a normal, boring door. I always planned to paint it a fun color, but after seeing some half-painted doors on Pinterest, I decided this was the perfect chance to try something fun like that. 

First I decided which portion of the door I wanted to paint. I could've gone with the straight-across half-and-half look, but I thought going diagonal would be a lot more fun! We placed the tape at the highest point we wanted the color to go, pulled it out all the way to the bottom stopping point, and flattened the tape to the door. Then, we repeated the process on the other side of the door.

Little tip: Really press the tape well to get a good seal so the color doesn't seep through. 

We used Brilliant Impressions for the yellow by Dutch Boy Paint, and I know I said this last time, but these paint buckets are so much easier to use than what I'm used to. We knew we wanted to choose a semi-gloss paint for the door so the surface is as durable as possible.

Laura used a soft bristle brush to paint the desired portion of the door and allowed the paint to dry. Soft bristle brushes are best for this sort of job because they don't leave brush strokes behind. With it being an old house, the old doorknob had already been painted a few times. So we went ahead and added another coat. :) So glad we got to do this! I LOVE the look of the doorknob blending right into the yellow. If you're trying this, but you have newer doorknobs, I totally respect your hesitation. Newer doorknobs seem to have a lot more hardware that paint could get into and really muck up.

Once the paint is dry, we just peeled off the tape and revealed our updated new door underneath.

(♥♥♥♥♥)

Next, I decided to do an accent wall. My office is very small and bright. It has three huge windows. It was previously painted white, which I love. I wanted to keep that bright and crisp vibe, while adding just a little bit of pattern. 

After months (yes, months—I'm crazy) of sketching out different accent walls from novelty prints to bold patterns to colorful designs, I decided that what was most appropriate for this space was actually something pretty simple (okay, REALLY simple). We settled on a hand-painted pattern using Route 66 grey from Dutch Boy Paint. It turned out to be both one of the easiest to execute statement walls we've done and the easiest to live with. It's subtle but adds a lot of texture to my space. Here's our process:

This statement wall is really easy and fast to complete—it only took an hour for Laura to complete the whole wall! Not bad! We chose a flat 1" wide craft brush to create the painted strokes.

Little tip: It's a good idea when you are doing a more free-form pattern like this one to create a guide to follow so your sizing and spacing remain consistent (you can see our guide in the photos above and below). The guide also helps you figure out how close together and how long you want your strokes to be. Just move the guide with you as you go to keep each section the same. Stand back from your wall every so often just to make sure the pattern is balanced.

Simple, right?

And here's the finished product... 

Once again, I'm amazed at the difference that just a little paint can make! 

Here are a few more images of my new space... 
I'm so excited about our painting updates and it feels AMAZING to be settled into a space. I already feel more productive. I'll be back soon to share more photos of my new office space. 

GIVEAWAY: Dutch Boy Paint wants to help a lucky reader do a little decorating of their own, so they're giving away—
• $350 VISA Gift Card
• 4 gallons of Dutch Boy Paint of the color and sheen of the reader's choosing
• Purdy DIY Kit (roller frame and covers, trim brush, paint tray, and paint opener)

TO ENTER: Just leave us a comment saying which painting technique you are more into: The half-painted door or the hand-painted wall? The giveaway is open until October 10, and the winner will be contacted shortly thereafter. Good luck!