We’ve officially been in our Virginia home for 2 years. I painted everything non-living during that time and now I’m adding some pattern to our spaces.

We have lots of gray, white, woods with a touch of black in every room. When I want a punch of color I use accessories that are easy to change out….and plants.

I decided to add some pizzazz to this plain wall in my son’s room. Something fresh, a little boho/tribal and inexpensive. I wanted to play around to create the accent wall he never knew he wanted!

The supplies needed are shockingly simple. I chose left over Charcoal paint from another project and gathered assorted sponges. There is not a right or wrong here- depends how chunky you want your pattern and how bold you want to be. Small sponge and a light color would be subtle. I went the polar opposite of subtle ~used the biggest sponge and the darkest color.

I chose the $3.99 large kitchen sponge for the job. I snipped off a corner on each end of the sponge to add some irregularity. You can vary your outcome just by your pressure, amount of paint used etc as well.

I layed out a drop cloth and grabbed a ladder for the first few rows. Poured some paint in a paint tray and dipped the long side of the in the paint then blotted it. I painted maybe 3-5 times before dipping it again. I also flipped the sponge upside down every now and then for a varied edge as well.

This took me 40 minutes start to finish and yes I timed myself. I’m just crazy like that. It is not perfect nor did I try for it to be. I just went for it and love the perfectly imperfect outcome.

Voila! $3.99 and under an hour accent wall achieved.

The very next week we were moving our daughter into her college apartment. She wanted an accent wall and was thinking of the faux brick wall paper. As much as I love it that’s $50 a roll and she would likely need 2-3 rolls only to pull it off in a year.

So…. she elected for a sponge wall in the same color. We used 2 of the smaller kitchen sponges held together to widen the pattern which was harder than one big sponge. But that’s what we had and it worked fine.

If you decide to sponge a wall my only advise would be to just go for it and don’t overthink it. If you try to make it level and perfect in every way – good for you but that would suck the joy out this type of project for me.

Some sponged areas aren’t perfectly straight, the rows may not be perfectly level but it’s the overall interpretation you see and I love it!!!!

Do I have you eyeing the walls and a kitchen sponge yet?????

Happy painting~ Kristen