Good Morning, Penny Darlings!

This week has been a whirlwind to say the absolute least! From photoshoots to that AMAZING Gwynnie Bee Outlet Sale (check out my whole post about it and shop the under $10 section while you can!), to new collabs, possible travel, the holiday season, starting the gym, argh! It’s enough to make a girl want to pull her hair out!

But, in the vein of Penny Darling being my full time job, and how much more work it is taking (don’t get me wrong, I freaking love it!) – I decided that I needed an at home work space so I wasn’t confined to using my laptop on my couch with the coffee table dragged up next to me.

And don’t get me wrong, I will be having a WHOLE post about my home office (including a video of Preston & Jeremy drinking wine while building an Ikea desk), my dino and unicorn lamp, rainbow cart, etc.

But, possibly the most delightfully extra part of my home office is the wall behind my desk.

This RAINBOW WALL is my favorite part of our house right now. It’s so cute.

So cute right?

Extra in the best possible way, also, amirite?

This is what is behind my desk and so fun and cute to make!

And, as a less than competent crafter – I wanted to make a super colorful wall with no paint, not that many steps, super reliable ‘ingredients’, things that were pretty easy to just run to the store and pick up, and generally inexpensive!

This actually all started in the whim of need. I wanted to make a paint chip wall. I literally ONLY had packing tape and push pins, and I needed to make it work.

After trying other adhesives and tools – I still found that this genius was in fact created by necessity. I liked the Duck Max Strength Tape because it was durable, clear, and easy to cut, and inexpensive. And bonus (I actually looked this up) – it’s 100x stronger than acrylic everyday tape and is extremely thick which gave the paint chip cubes some shape so they weren’t curling up with any heat/humidity. I literally bought it at my local Sam’s Club.

And I liked the pushpins because they did the least amount of damage to the (rented) walls of our apartment, were inexpensive, and easy to move around when I (inevitably) made a mistake.

Here’s the ingredients to your very own paint chip wall!

Ingredient List

Paint Chips (mine are Sherwin Williams!)

Here’s the nice part about that – they are super easy to find, usually FREE at any home improvement store (or even Sam’s Club or Wal-Mart has some), and you can get them to mix and match in ANY color scheme. Want all pink? Just grab dupes of each pink color and make every cube pink or whatever color you want! Easy, free, and convenient customization. Mine are all part of the Sherwin Williams line!

For my wall, I needed 24 total cubes to cover the area, with a total of 8 paint chips per cube. Let’s do some math. 24×8 = 192 paint chips. I grabbed probably close to 250 for the ones I inevitably ruined or when I changed my mind.

 

Duck Max Strength Packaging Tape

So I grabbed am 8-pack of the Duck Max Strength Packaging Tape from the Sam’s Club office supply section, of all places, when Preston and I were in the process of moving (8 rolls for less than $20, so obviously, sold). And it was perfect for all the heavy duty moving that were doing at the time (which is originally why I bought the max strength!). But at the time, we needed something durable, resistant, and thick for packing.

We only ended up using a few rolls to pack everything to move and I had a few leftover. And I used it for EVERYTHING. I used it to fix a kitchen chair, to hold the BROKEN fridge handle on, for shipping all of my Penny Darling Closet sales, etc.

I knew I liked the brand and when I decided I was tired of the WHITE WHITE WHITE walls in our apartment – I grabbed some of the Duck Max Strength Packaging Tape and some scissors to start what eventually would become this rainbow baby.

 

Push Pins

Preston and I had a serious argument (well, not so serious) about what is a thumbtack and what is a push pin because we apparently have been using the words interchangeably different our whole lives. So we took to Google to settle the debate. And even Google couldn’t give us a completely clear answer on which was correct.

So for clarity sake – I nabbed an image of what I used from Wikipedia (ah, after college, people care a lot less if you cite Wikipedia, just saying).

I picked these in varied colors (although white or silver would do just fine!) I picked these because they lay flat against the wall and were harder for me to catch on my skirts, the dog leash, grocery bags, tutus, you know, normal adult stuff.

 

Scissors

The Duck Max Strength Packaging Tape is HEAVY DUTY. It’s meant for heavy duty shipping and packing and is meant for that. Get some good scissors or you’ll muck them up. No kid handles.

C’mon, people. Only kid scissors if an actual child is helping you with this craft.

Color Printing Paper

I went for color print paper as opposed to construction paper. I usually think construction paper comes in very primary colors and usually LOOKS like construction paper, if that makes sense.

So I went to Wal-Mart and grabbed two packs, one in pastels and one in bold colors of print paper. If you don’t feel like buying two reams of paper for a total of 24 pieces – I totally understand and can definitely be done with construction paper, all pastels, all bolds, whatever you like!

Each pack cost a total of $3.47.

 

Total: About $30 for this whole wall.

A good can of paint will cost you as much, not even including primer and a sealer or brushes or paint trays or rollers or drop cloths or anything.

And some of these things you may even have laying around! And the bonus is you’ll have tape and pins leftover after this – so you can use them for the next supply!

 

 

The Three (and a half) Process

Step 1: Pick & Decide

First, easy, pick a wall. I think this is the perfect thing for an accent wall. I knew which wall, I knew I wanted a rainbow color wall, and I knew I wanted it to be a checkerboard pattern. So I measured the wall, picked the colors and chips I wanted, and decided on the pattern!

 

Step 2: Tape the Chips

This is definitely the most labor intensive (and it took me and my mom all of about two hours to do) of the process.

So I grabbed my colors and started sectioning them into colors. I used mine to be 4×2 for a total of eight chips per cube.

The easiest way to do this was laying a strip of the Duck Max Strength Packaging Tape on a surface (sticky side up!) and to lay the chips to create a center line. (so it looked a bit like fringe!).

Then I used the Duck Max Strength Packaging Tape to seal every strip together! For all 24 cubes, being completely laid in strips and completely covered on the back, it took me about 3 or 4 rolls to do this! (Literally why I bought it at Sam’s Club – I knew I’d need a bunch)

Step 3: Pattern & Tack

So this is honestly the last step in the process. I’ve never done a DIY post quite like this, so if you have any questions about what I mean, let me know, and I’d be happy to edit and add if there’s something unclear! Again, I went for the checkerboard with the in between squares filled with color print paper.

So I started at my top most corner, and worked my way down on a corner-to-corner diagonal for the first complete line, putting each cube corner to corner! (Don’t put the tape on the wall!)

In each subsequent line, I placed every cube corner to corner to create the same distance and aesthetic between each cube. Then in the top center of the four paint strips, I used a push pin (color varying!) in each (just one!)

In the in between squares of the checkerboard, I added the computer paper in between! I wanted to do some fan art in there but I am still trying to figure them out!

 

Step 3.5 – Fix it!

This is a crucial step for the amateur crafter like me. I checked to make sure that there weren’t any weird color mash ups, no loose corners, using my wrist Duck Max Strength Packaging Tape for any extra cube reinforcement, straightening things up, giving a last push to the pins, etc.

Take an extra five minutes, walk across the room, snap a pic on your phone and make sure it looks straight, even, correct, and how you want it to look!

 

You’re Done!

This should be a fairly easy DIY project! I got almost all of my supplies in one trip to Sam’s Club. (here’s a link to a store locator if you need it!) and that’s literally two miles from my house.

Duck Max Strength Packaging Tape posed a question about what varied uses it has and I thought – probably no one has showed the other uses for it, including crafts (and home repair for the millennial with a fridge handle!).

I wanted something quick, easy, affordable (seriously, total under $30), removable yet durable, and adorably cute for my home office space (and as a background for a potential YouTube videos – hint hint!) This was the perfect mix to meet all of my needs!

Let me know!

What are your rental home DIY hacks?

I’m always trying to bring color into our space without the dreaded painting! I’d love to hear any thoughts about other ways to do this!

 

 

*Duck Brand sponsored this blog post. All opinions are mine alone. This post contains affiliate links but as always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.*

SO HERE’S THE “END OF BLOG” SPIEL!

The next few weeks have some awesome stuff planned! If you didn’t check out my Gwynnie Bee post about the amazing sale – check it out! I also have my picks for Thanksgiving Fashion, an Eloquii lookbook, a home tour, and more coming up in the next few weeks! And I CANNOT wait to get into the holiday season. Brace your stockings for this one!

If you are at all interested in doing a collab or working with me – please feel free to check out my new Contact Me! page!

I definitely want to do more His & Her fashion. Do you guys like seeing Preston more?

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Thank you for all that you do. You are truly extraordinary.

Love all you wonderful ladies (and gents!) out there!

How Very,

Abby