Upholstered Accent Wall Tutorial

I’m excited to show you today’s upholstered accent wall project! I’m not gonna lie: it didn’t go as
smoothly as I thought it would, but I love the result. Don’t worry, I’ll tell
you the things that you can anticipate and maybe avoid should you be crazy
awesome enough to staple fabric onto your walls.

Recently, I shared a before picture of our very sad, very boring
hallway.

and made it better a few weeks ago by making this great picture ledge.
It’s good, but I wanted a little something else.

 

I read this article on ways
to make a long hallway appear not so long.  One of the ways mentioned was
to paint the back wall a different color. It makes sense. The color brings your
eye / your attention to the end of the hall, making it not seem so long. It’s
an illusion. Now, our hallway isn’t crazy long or anything but it was boring
and does deserve some cuteness. I was going to paint it but then got the chance
to collaborate with fabric.com on another
project and I thought a pattern would look amazing in this tiny little space.
When I told them my idea was to upholster an accent wall, they were all for it!

 

So here’s what I used for this project: **this post contains some affiliate
links for your convenience.

an iron and ironing board

staple gun (the one I used)

staples

3
yards of this fabric

Xacto knife

Sharpies (you’ll see)

a small screwdriver

needle nose pliers (for mistakes…I used them once)

I measured my wall and luckily is was a bit narrower than the 54″ wide
fabric. You could try and match seams if you have a wider wall or look for a
wider fabric while searching. We have 8ft ceilings so I ordered 3 yards of
fabric to give me a little extra room to work.

To start off, I ironed the seam that would be at the top of the wall. I
wanted to make sure I started with a straight line and a straight pattern.

I wanted to be able to hide the staples at the top.  So with another
set of hands, courtesy of a sweet friend, we held the fabric where we wanted
it, made sure it was centered on the wall, and stapled it from underneath,
making sure the staples were right up against the fold and the crown molding.

 



Next we cut away the excess fabric from the middle and used it for a cute
throw pillow (just sayin’).

 

I pulled the fabric taut and started stapling above the door jamb.
Before I started stapling down either side of the door I had to make a small
cut in the excess fabric around the door trim to keep the fabric flush with the
wall.

 

I definitely didn’t want to cut too much so I just kept making small cuts
and checking until the fabric was able to be stapled around the trim.

The sides are where I had a little bit of trouble, only because the space
between the closet door and the side walls was so narrow that I couldn’t lay my
staple gun in there at a correct angle to get a flush staple.  I took a
picture of the angle of the stapler on the side sections. So, you’d only have
this problem if you’re upholstering a wall that is narrower than your staple
gun is long. These sides are 4″ wide.

Anyway, I stapled the sides down at this angle and then it was time to cut
the excess fabric. I wanted to try and complete the wall with no trim around
it. Just a clean cut line. This is where I ran into my next little problem. I
couldn’t cut the fabric as easily as I had hoped. I used an xacto knife and
thought it would be so easy but I think the issue goes back to the angle in
which I had to staple. Because I couldn’t staple straight up against the cut
edge, the fabric pulled a bit.

I carefully (and way slower than I had hoped) cut down the sides and around
the door then used a tiny screw driver to tuck extra little threads or edges
back behind our trim.

I’ve seen this project done before, by
masters
I might add, and they completed their wall with trim
around the edge. Since our little accent wall was so small I wanted to try and
stay away from that. If you have a bigger space, it probably would be the
easiest thing. This is where the sharpies came in.

 

I used an orange and black sharpie to make the staples disappear into the
fabric. I think it worked out pretty well. You might think this looks a little
unfinished but you would never notice them unless you walked right up to it and
looked for them.

I love how it transformed our boring hallway! It’s colorful and adds a great
pattern but it’s also easily removable if we decide we don’t want it anymore.
Just pull out the staples and, because it’s paneling, we might have to lightly
sand, then paint! Love it.

 

If you pull out further into our living area you can see how the orange
works so well with this great rug. And see the throw pillow behind the kitty?
An added bonus!

 Thank
you, fabric.com, for the fabric and for your willingness to let me try
something unconventional. And thanks to my husband for that same
‘unconventional projects’ reason… 
If you have any further questions about the project, let me know.
I’d love to help! 

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Thanks for reading, friends!
 Pin image below to save or share for this upholstered accent wall project:

Fabric Upholstered Wall Tutorial

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upholstered accent wall project

One thought on “Upholstered Accent Wall Tutorial

  1. Ok this is the coolest thing I have seen in forever.
    You are like the Hildi of this generation.
    From Trading Spaces.
    A show from TLC before all the other decor shows came on.

    JUST KNOW YOU ARE COOL.

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