$100 Room Challenge Week 3: How to free hand a feature wall

Hi guys!  We finally made a little progress on our broom-closet-turned-pantry for this round of the $100 Room Challenge this week.  The feature wall, hallelujah, is done, and I’ll show you how I was able to free hand it. 

(Be sure to catch up on Week 1 and Week 2 of the $100 Room Challenge for the before pics and the complete plans!) 

How to free hand a feature wall

After painting all of the walls The Perfect White by Valspar, I determined how many different vertical sections I wanted.  I wanted three sections. So, I measured the back wall of pantry- it was 23 inches.  So, I divided 23 by 3 and came up with 7.6 inches.  I’m not great at measuring and not a perfectionist so I rounded my measurements down to 7.5.  So, I measured 7.5 inches from the wall and drew a light vertical line in pencil down the entire wall at that point using a yard stick.  I then measured another 7.5 inches from that point and drew another vertical line in pencil.  It’s hard to see in pictures because the lines are so light, but here’s what I did:

You can see the little tic marks that I was using to measure from the wall every 7.5 inches every few inches or so to keep myself on track.  And also my terrible manicure. 

Here’s what the two lines looked like after I was done, giving me three sections of wall.

Next, I decided how many inches I wanted between each line that goes up the wall and settled on 6 inches.  Starting on the left side, I made a little tic mark (using light pencil marks) on the vertical line every 6 inches.  

I did the same thing on each line, including the corners. 

Finally, I was ready to start connecting and tracing the lines with color!  Guess what color I used?

Well, I promise my intent, at first, was to go with a tastefully decorated faux white shiplap.  But I just couldn’t.  I have to have some color! 

Here’s what I did: 

So you can see that I started on the middle first.  As you can see, I connected the lines diagonally.  Each line connects to the line above it.   

On the left side, I connected the lines in the opposite direction…

And on the right side, I connected the lines downward.  But I’m not showing  that yet!  You’ll see it with the reveal next week 😉

So, the cost of this wall treatment?  Totally free!  And it took about an hour, total to complete.  Not bad! 

So far I’ve spent… $0.  But this week I’ve got to build and install the shelves.  I’m hoping that I can mostly use leftover lumber, but I think that I’m going to have to buy a little.  I think I’m going to have to buy a couple of storage items too, but I’m aiming as low as possible for budget.  The lower I can get under $100, the better! 

Be sure to check out the rest of the rest of the amazing bloggers working on the $100 Room Challenge, and thanks again to Erin of Lemons, Lavender, and Laundry for hosting this challenge! 

And don’t worry! I took care of that awful manicure a couple of days ago 😀

Edit:  The pantry is complete! See the reveal here!