EP 159 // Calling All Creative Home Owners! 3 Wow-Factor DIY Wall Decor Ideas

Cara Baker (0:00)

Why buy something predictable for your walls when you could create something nobody else has?

If you love the idea of DIY home decor, but usually end up staring at a blank wall with no clue what to make, I'm going to help you get creative, because I've got three ideas that'll get you itching to make something with proper wow factor.

Welcome to the Daring Home Decor podcast. Are you tired of playing it safe with your interior design? Are you overwhelmed with choice and just want simple steps to pull off cohesive and unique decor?

I'm your host, Cara Baker, virtual interior designer and bold decor coach. I'll help you get brave, find your style, and create a home with pizzazz. So grab your paintbrush, put on those overalls, and let's get decorating.

Welcome to the Daring Home Decor podcast. If you're new around here, my name's Cara Baker. I'm a virtual interior designer, and I help female homeowners decorate with bold interior design. And today, I am calling on your creative side, because I'm going to share with you three wow factor DIY wall decor ideas. And wall decor is one of the best places to get creative, because you're not limited. You can create whatever you want on your walls. And I know that a big blank wall in front of you can feel awkward, because you just don't know what to fill it with, and oversized artwork can cost a fortune. So I want you to try and think outside of the box a little bit, and have fun, because the fun starts when you stop asking, what picture should I hang here, and start asking, what could I turn into wall decor? And the three ideas I'm going to share with you today are bold, achievable, and you won't need specialist skills or a huge budget. Let's kick off with number one, and it's to create a gallery wall from framed wallpaper remnants.

You can use leftover wallpaper from rooms that you've decorated. And this is such a fabulous thing to do, because what you'll also do if you use wallpaper that you've got in other rooms, is you will create a cohesive home. And it can look really edgy when you have a little nod in one room to a wallpaper that you've already got in another. This is such a good idea to do. You could do this in other places as well, but that is a subject for another podcast episode. You could also use old rolls, maybe, from wallpapers that you've used in the past, or samples that you've collected over the years. Maybe you fell in love with some of the samples that you've had in the past, but for one reason or another, didn't decide to go ahead with that. Maybe it was just a bit too bold for a whole room, but could absolutely be used just inside a frame. So you get your wallpaper, end of rolls or samples, and then what you do is you frame them. So each pattern becomes its own piece of art, and you could make sure that they're all the same size, or you could have them different sizes. You could have them all landscape, or a mixture of landscape and portrait, or you could have them all portrait. You could have them all uniformed in a row, or an asymmetric arrangement. You can do whatever you like with this. As I mentioned, you can mix all of the wallpapers. Hopefully, they'll all be in the same kind of color palette and theme, although having very different wallpapers can also be effective because the cohesiveness is in what you're doing. You're framing pieces of wallpaper and putting them all together. So it should work whichever way that you choose. Or you could actually have the same wallpaper and choose sections of the pattern carefully so that they all go together, but they're not all repeated. You could do this so you've got different sections that aren't following on from each other, if that makes sense. Or you could actually do it so the pattern repeats from frame to frame. If it repeats, the pattern carries on from frame to frame. And a little tip for you, don't automatically center the obvious motif.

That can look very predictable. We want to be edgy and catch attention by not doing the obvious. This won't necessarily consciously make people think, oh, they haven't put the main feature in the center, and that's made it look a little bit more edgy and different, but subconsciously, they will notice.

With regards to the frames, you can also mix the frame sizes, orientations, and styles, so it doesn't all look too formal or predictable, or you could use matching frames for cohesion, or deliberately mix them for an eclectic look. It's totally up to you. This is what makes this project so customizable and fun. It's a great way to reuse something that would otherwise sit forgotten in a cupboard. And maybe if you loved a wallpaper, but you decided you wanted to change, then you can still use this wallpaper in your gallery wall, so you've still got a little piece of it there, even though you've gone for the change in the main area that you originally used it in. This is probably where your brain is gonna start doing that annoying thing. You've had a brilliant idea for the wall, you're excited about it, and suddenly you're thinking, but what if it doesn't go with my sofa? What color should the rest of the room be? Am I going to make this look ridiculous? And poof, creative idea gone. I hate that, I don't want that for you, because the quirky bit is usually the bit that gives the room its personality. You don't need someone to come along and make your ideas safer. You need enough of a plan around them that you can actually go for it. That's what I'm doing when I create a digital decor kit, giving you a direction for the room, so those slightly mad creative ideas have something to work with. So instead of talking yourself out of the fun bit, you can work out how to make it belong. Have a look at daringhomedecor.co.uk/digitaldecorkit, which is why these ideas aren't about making something for the sake of it. They're about creating something bold enough to earn its place in the room. And the next one does exactly that. Number two is to paint your own mural.