When I was planning the baby’s nursery, one of the main things I wanted was a patterned accent wall. To make things a bit easier on myself, I decided to go the decal route to create a polka dot wall. Although I absolutely loved the way the finished product turned out, it took a bit longer than expected. So if you’re considering doing one of your own, hopefully I can save you some pain and frustration!
Because I’m not a very good “visualizer,” we started by eye-balling some dots on the wall to estimate the spacing. It did give us a fairly good idea of how the wall might turn out, but we wasted precious time cutting out the dots, taping them to the wall with painter’s tape, and changing up spacing. When it came down to it, I knew I wanted a more organized system for actually applying the dots, so we essentially had to start from scratch.
This time, we decided to grid the wall. We started off five inches from the top of the wall and spaced each horizontal string ten inches apart.
We followed the same pattern for the vertical lines. We measured five inches from the right side of the wall, and placed each vertical line ten inches apart.
I wanted a more staggered look to the dots. So instead of applying a dot to every line intersection, we staggered them for every other row. This created a more diamond pattern rather than a square box pattern. (For example, on the top row, we placed a dot along the horizontal line in the midpoint between the two vertical intersections. On the next row, we placed each dot at the intersection of every vertical and horizontal line.)
The finished product? A perfectly polka-dotted wall! (And a sneak preview of baby’s nursery! ;))
Other details you may want to know?
I purchased my polka dot decals on GroopDealz, but you can buy identical ones here.
We used a total of 114 polka dots. Without the monogram it would have been 117, or nine rows of thirteen.
The gray paint color is Valspar’s Urban Sunrise in eggshell finish.
I love it!! Such a pretty color gray for the wall, and the white dots are the perfect addition for adding interest without being over the top (so elegant with the monogram too). And I’m extremely impressed with how you put them up – definitely will have to remember this measuring technique as I’ve wanted to do something like this but just know I would be a complete disaster about spacing and straight lines!
I can’t get over how much I LOVE this!!! Y’all did a fantastic job. I might have to copy this idea for a room in my house. (Love the sneak peak!)
Oh my gosh, that’s so cute! I want this in MY room!! Haha I’m not sure Alex would do that project with me (because I’m totally the person that would be like, nah, let”s just eyeball it…. and then it turns out totally off haha)
Her room looks so sweet! I love the look of the accent wall! It was totally worth the early frustrations for such a great end product!
Wow, this looks amazing! I always seem to mess up projects like this, even with all of the prep work–sometimes my inner DIY just can’t get with the picture. The wall looks perfect though and can’t wait to see the rest of the nursery!
This is adorable!
I absolutely LOVE this! Can’t wait to see more!
I actually want to do this EXACT same thing in my guest bedroom/home office. Can you tell me how many dots you ended up using for that size wall? I have a place that sells 100 dots in the size I want (I think the same as here… like 1.5 inches) but I’m not 100% sure that one package is enough! Thanks SO much for this tutorial! It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for!
-Kate
http://www.theflorkens.com
LOVE!!! Eek it is so exciting.
I absolutely love this! The polka dots and monogram are so cute!
This came out beautifully! I love the idea of using a grid to make sure everything applies evenly.
This turned out so well! It makes me want to go put polka dots all over my house.
This looks amazing…so cute!
This turned out so adorable! Not sure if I would have the patience for it though, looks intense.
Kristina does the Internets
Holy cow what a project! Very cute though!
I can only imagine how long this took, BUT it was well worth it!! It looks amazing and will be there for many years to come. I remember how much fun Ross and I had designing the nurseries for our girls…this just makes me smile! So excited for your guys to bring her home!!
You did such a great job, so pretty!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the way this turned out! It is absolutely adorable!
Yes to all of this! It’s making me so nostalgic for baby days. If I ever have another come do my nursery!
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Hi! Just read this because I’m looking to do a polka dot wall 🙂
May I ask which size did you use? Do you still like it 3 ys later?! 🙂
TIA!!
We did this too and love it…..Where did you get the cursive lettering for above the crib?