How to totally transform a room with grey paint

Those who are regulars here will know that I have a firm belief that you can transform any room with some paint. It is the most cost-effective way to give a room a facelift: whether you paint a focal wall, all walls, paint above the dado or below, create an imaginary dado with paint or add a pattern or stencil, paint has the incredible ability to completely change the look and dynamic of a space.

When Prominent Paints asked me to take part in their 50 Shades Freed campaign this year, I immediately started looking for the perfect spot in need of a facelift. My friend Tarryn volunteered her guest room and her time, and the results are even more amazing than what I expected!

Here’s what I did for the 50 Shades promo last year!

Transform a room with Grey Paint

Time: 5 hours, excluding drying time

You will need:

• A design. You can copy ours or create your own, but straight lines are by far the easiest thing to do.
• Paint: we used white, Grey Steel1, Night Jewels 5, Night Jewels 4 and acid yellow (S1040-Y)
• Masking tape
• Foam rollers, a small brush for small areas and a tray.

The room is tiny, with ample natural light and a sweet grey-and-white painted wooden floor. There already was pale grey paint on the walls, so we started by painting the white lines first. This was by far the most laborious part of the process, and it would, of course, have been much easier if the walls were white to start with! But they weren’t, so the outlines were taped, and it took 3 coats to create nice, solid white lines.

After the white paint had dried, the pattern was taped over the new white lines and the rest of the colours filled in. The lines have to be completely straight before you start painting. After you’ve taped, stand back and make sure everything is correct before you start painting.

Here are a few tips to get your pattern just right:

• Draw the design to scale on paper first before you start. It helps to colour the blocks the way you want them. When you are facing a large wall, it is sometimes difficult to figure out what is supposed to go where!
• Some paint colours will require more coats than others. Especially intense colours, like the acid yellow we’ve used, are likely to need 2 or 3 coats to get nice, even coverage.
• You can use painter’s tape or masking tape, but make sure that you remove the tape carefully once everything has dried so that you don’t damage the pattern.

The big reveal!

The paint was great to work with: it has great coverage, is easy to use and doesn’t have that horrible toxic smell. We totally love the colours, and the results speak for themselves! The little splash of yellow adds just enough colour to brighten up the entire room.

Happy Painting!

All products for this project was kindly sponsored by Prominent Paints.