DIY Hexagon Sharpie Wallpaper Tutorial

Today is the day that I finally tell you what is going on with the walls in my living room.

Lots of you have commented wondering about the large hexagons that have shown up in some recent posts. So it is time to let the cat out of the bag.

That, my friends, is what a girl does when she can't find or doesn't want to deal with wallpaper. That is what I like to call Hexagon Sharpie Wallpaper!

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There really is no actual wallpaper involved here. Just your walls, a Sharpie, and a slightly steady hand.

Are you scared? Don't be.

I tested it out and if you ever change your mind, you can just paint right over it. So that means a whole heck of a lot of impact for the cost of paint and a pack of metallic Sharpies.

This was one of those projects that I didn't tell the hubs the details of. I knew that saying out loud that I was going to draw on our walls with Sharpie would add a few days of negotiating onto my project time, and well to be honest, I didn't know if it would even turn out. But when I was done, "mind blown" might just be the perfect description!

This project did not take nearly as much time as I thought it would. Here is how I did it.

I painted my walls in a light blue color first. They were a greige before and I wanted to lighten up the room and add color. That was the most time consuming part.

Once that is done, gather up some supplies for the Hexagon Wall Paper.

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You will need:  A level, a pencil, a measuring tape, metallic Sharpies (I went through 3 silver ones) and a template of the shape you want (like my hexagon.)

I wanted a large scale hexagon pattern so I made one large (18 inch) hexagon out of cardboard and cut it out using an X-ACTO knife. You want the edges to be nice and smooth so using an X-ACTO knife or utility knife is important.

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The first hexagon is really important because it will set up the placement for the rest of the wall, so make sure this one is perfect.

First I figured out where I wanted to start my first hexagon. I started in the center of my wall and just above eye level so that the horizontal line of hexagons didn't look too perfect.

Place your template on the wall and make sure that it is perfectly level and plumb.

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Once it is perfect, trace your hexagon with your Sharpie. Don't go too fast because the texture of the walls can screw you up.

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There is my first hexagon. Don't worry it was straight on the wall; I was at an angle when taking this picture with my kid on my hip… oh mommahood.

Now just line up your template with the hexagon on the wall and double check to make sure it is level and plumb and trace another hexagon. Then do another, and another, and another until…

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You get to the point where your template won't lay flat because of the ceiling or a corner.

Don't worry I have a solution!

In an effort to avoid doing any math and because I love a template, here is what I did to continue my pattern up to the ceiling and to the end of a wall.

With another piece of cardboard, make a straight edge that is exactly the length of one of the sides of your hexagon.

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Then make a template for the angle of your hexagon with another small piece of cardboard and mark it with an arrow.

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So now since your hexagon template won't fit flat onto the wall you will have to make each hexagon line by line.

So take your straight edge and put it at the top point of your last hexagon and make sure it is plumb. Then trace the line just up to the mark that you made on your piece of cardboard.

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To get the angles, line up the edge of your angle template with the arrow where the point of the hexagon will be and trace a few inches in.

Then line your straight edge up with the small line you just made and finish the line stopping at the marks you made for the correct length of the line.

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Continue this process until your wall is completely filled with hexagons.

And that's it!

I love how the light catches the lines of the hexagons at different times of the day and it is just enough pattern to make the space interesting.