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Stunning DIY Wood Accent Wall

Gorgeous Wood Accent Wall! Make your own stunning feature wall with this simple DIY tutorial! Looks amazing in this modern entryway!

Image collage with text overlay

If you asked me right now what my favourite part of our new house was, I would probably always tell you that it was this entry feature wall! I dreamed up this idea, sketched about 50 different designs in my notebook, and built the wall with my husband in just one afternoon. I’ll show you just how easy it is for you to build your own stunning wood accent wall!

Paint swatches on wall for color choice of the wood accent wall

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The Beginnings

This is the blank wall in our modern entry that we started with. I knew I wanted to add a great feature wall here. I toyed with the idea of wallpaper, or a geometric design, but in the end decided on a wooden accent wall and I’m so happy with the design.

Make sure you have all your measuring tools ready for the accent wall build

Here’s everything you need to make your own wood accent wall:

1/2″ MDF cut into 1″ strips

6 ft. level (or any large ruler)

A smaller level

A speed square

Measuring tape

Pencil and eraser

Mitre saw

Nail gun

Drywall putty

Sanding paper

Paint (we used Black Bamboo by Behr Paint)

How to Make a Wood Feature Wall:

We absolutely love this project, and we want anyone to be able to recreate it! So we are sharing a video tutorial (from when we recreated this wall in a friend’s home), and a written tutorial!

Video Tutorial:

This project was so fun! We actually snuck into a friend’s home (with permission!), while they were on vacation, and built them their own beautiful feature wall!

Watch for a great tutorial and a great room reveal:

Written Instructions

Use a speed square to measure some of your angles of the wood accent wall

You can copy my design or make one of your own. Either way, you may need to draw multiple pencil lines before you’re satisfied! We didn’t measure any special angles, except the first one, which we needed a speed square for.

Start by drawing one prominent line that you want to work off of at a 45 degree angle. A speed square against the wall will give you exactly 45 degrees—so you can start the line there, and then use a level or large ruler to draw the rest of the straight line. We started with the large angled line that goes through the centre of the design.

Draw your lines using a pencil

Next, we drew one line perpendicular to the first one, going up towards the corner of the wall. We made sure it was exactly 90 degrees difference by using a square (or speed square again). Once we had those two lines, we could work off of them in either direction.

Measure the width between the strips so you're happy with placement for the wood accent wall

To do this, I eyeballed where I wanted the next line to be. Let’s say I decided 15 inches, then we used the measuring tape to measure 15 inches from the original line a few times, drew ticks along the wall 15 inches away, and then used the large ruler to connect those ticks.

Measuring the space between the strips

I wanted a few horizontal lines at the bottom of my design. To do these, we just used a level to make sure that they were perpendicular to the wall and made our own spacing again.

Use a level for perpendicular lines on the wood accent wall

When it came to adding the MDF pieces, we were originally going to add 1/2″ pieces. But when we drew the design on the wall (hard to see above), we realized it was too small. So, we measured 3/4″ pieces, but I still didn’t like it (sorry hubby! lol). We finally settled on 1″ thick pieces and they were perfect.

When you are ready to cut the pieces, use a measuring tape to measure the length of your line and cut with a mitre saw. All of the angled pieces will have 45 degree cuts and straight cuts. For the horizontal pieces I did at the bottom, we just held up our strip of MDF against the pieces already on the wall, and drew the top and bottom of the cuts by hand (no measuring angles!).

Nail all of the pieces to the wall with a nail gun!

The wood accent wall with MDF strips nailed in

Once all of the pieces were up on the wall, we filled the joints with wood putty. When that was set, we sanded down the putty so everything was smooth and then we (errr… my very helpful friend!) painted the wall!

Paint the wall after all your MDF pieces are on the wood accent wall

I’m so unbelievably happy with how this feature wall turned out! It’s even better than my sketches, lol.

The completed wood accent wall
A closeup of the completed wood accent wall
Modern Entry
A side angle of the completed wood accent wall
A closeup of the completed wood accent wall
Gorgeous Wood Accent Wall! Make your own stunning feature wall with this simple DIY tutorial! LOVE the final results!

If you ever recreate this wall, I would love for you to tag me on Instagram!

We recreated a similar DIY Wood Accent wall in a friend’s home and here’s how her feature wall looked when we were done:

DIY Wood Accent Wall with White paint on white wall

I absolutely love the white on white in this space! It’s the perfect way to accent that wall which is the main focal point for the room.

Beautiful DIY Wood Accent Wall with Mouldings
DIY Dining Room Accent Wall

We also added the same mouldings to the reading nook off the side of the dining room! The two accent walls are connected in design, but define each of the spaces individually!

Gorgeous dining room and reading nook wood accent walls

Doing the moulding wall on the corner was especially fun! We’ve never done anything like that before and I loved tackling a corner for the first time!

Corner Accent Wall DIY
DIY Moulding Accent Wall in the Corner

You might also be interested in how we did this Beautiful Weathered Wood Ceiling!

A beautiful dream closet makeover! I LOVE the organization ideas. Such a great use of a small space.
Lighting Update

Or in How to Paint a Textured Wall!

Great tips for painting a textured wall if you don't want have to scrap all of the texture off! You will love these painting tips!

Meghan Melissis

Sunday 3rd of January 2021

Love this and did something similar in my dining room. Question how did you mount the ikea mirror. I have the exact same one and I’m wondering did you put a piece of wood behind the mirror for the screws to anchor into first then the wall or are you doing something else ! Thankyou

Lindi

Sunday 10th of January 2021

We used wall anchors and long screws!

divya kandi

Monday 12th of October 2020

could you please let me know what size nails do i use on the MDF board to nail them to a dry wall? is 1 & 1/2 inch brad nail enough to secure? or smaller? or would you recommend adding some construction adhesive also?

Lindi

Wednesday 14th of October 2020

Yes, we used 1 1/2" brad nails! I would recommend the construction adhesive to hold it in place.

Kendra

Wednesday 7th of October 2020

Hi LOVE ALL the walls! we just tried to do this in a bedroom. My question is we put MDF board over the wall first as it is a textured wall and then the 1" pieces on top. Hired a professional painter and when he was done the wall had a bunch of warps in it. Did you not put boarding on the wall first with yours?

Lindi

Wednesday 14th of October 2020

No, we didn't have textured walls, so we didn't put a board up first. Did you glue the 1" strips to the MDF board? If not, then painting them afterwards definitely could've caused it to warp! We always recommend using the construction adhesive.

Trish

Friday 21st of August 2020

Absolutely love this design! I’m inspired to try this (fingers crossed lol). Can you let me know which type of laser level you used? I’m in the process of getting all the tools. Thanks!

Corky Walpole

Saturday 23rd of May 2020

What’s the name of that green wall color?

Lindi

Wednesday 27th of May 2020

It's called Black Bamboo by Behr! :)