Color Blocks Inspired by Ellsworth Kelly

Using some ideas I gleaned from http://www.projectnursery.com/ and some imagination and patience, I turned my daughter's room in to a vibrant and fun space to match her personality. I'd never worked with "color blocking" before so I did some research on how to proceed successfully. I came across this other website on "How to make crisp tape lines". So, armed with that knowledge, paint, and some Frog Tape (yes, this had the BEST success at perfect tape lines...its worth the extra $1-2!) off I went to design a wall.

To choose color, I went off some inspiration from a South American pillowcase (see colorful pillow on bed), the bedcover (a dark sage), and the color of the current chest-of-drawers (brighter sage and red). From there, my daughter and I went to Home Depot and just started pulling color samples (she, of course, veered immediately to the Disney brand). After 6 colors (one for background "grid"(pint) and 5 "square" colors (sampler containers, $3ea) were selected, HD just color matched our paint chips and mixed up little sampler containers of each (about $20). Grabbed 5 cheap foam brushes (so I could just toss when done -- $5) and 2 rolls of Frog Tape (about $8).

To mark grid I measured the section of wall to paint (I did entire height of wall, but not entire width) making each square 1 foot and sure to add a 1 inch tape line between each square. Since I only bought 1 pint of grid paint (and didn't want to paint ENTIRE wall), I painted grid lines first. Once dry, I measured out the grid and placed the tape over the grid (light aqua color in pic).  Then painted more grid (aqua) paint over the tape edges. That way, if the paint bleeds under tape edge, it won't show...and now the tape line is sealed! That's the cool trick I learned from http://www.houseofhepworth.com/. This trick works like a champ! Next, just paint each square with color.

Peeling the tape to revel crisp paint lines was incredibly enjoyable. The big mess of colors turns into an amazing "art" piece...might even make Ellsworth Kelly proud (your art is the whole wall AND abstract!).



http://www.houseofhepworth.com/



close-up of my paint edges