How to Paint an Ombre Wall in 5 Easy Steps
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Unlike most people, I love painting. I love it so much I got my BFA in painting - true story! Not only do I love painting paintings, I also love painting rooms. I love the process of turning my mind off, getting in the zone, and drastically changing the look of a room in just a few hours with a gallon or two of paint. Let’s be honest - some of that might be the paint fumes talking.
Although it’s not appropriate in all rooms, I love trying new things with paint. Whether it’s adding a simple accent wall that’s a couple shades darker than the main color or painting a room a bold, dark, moody teal to creating a stencil to make a design or (in my most recent room makeover) painting an ombre wall.
As I mentioned in this post, once I got sucked into the world of ombre walls on Pinterest, I knew I had to give it a try. Ombre walls are definitely trending right now, and as with any trend there’s always the fear that it’ll go out of style. You know another thing I love about paint? It’s SO easy to change if that happens! Plus, I figured if I could pull it off, it would look amazing. So off I went!
I was so excited to work on our daughter’s room and take it from the dark, light-sucking blue/gray we inherited to something bright and girly.
This is our daughter’s room from the listing photo. It worked for the teenage boy who resided here, but for a four-year-old girl? No way.
Picking a color
For some reason I couldn’t shake the idea of using pink and teal in this room, so then it was just a matter of picking the exact paint colors.
I love to hang out in the paint section at Lowe’s. I take so many paint chips that I might just single-handedly keep someone in a job constantly restocking them. I actually created our younger daughter’s mobile with paint chips I collected over time and for some reason felt the need to keep. (You can check out how I made the mobile HERE.)
This project was no different. I headed over to Lowe’s and grabbed a whole bunch of colors in the family I was thinking of and taped them to the wall.
Then I let them hang out there until I got a chance to paint a few weeks later. Sometimes my paint chips only stay up for a day or two, but typically it’s much longer. I’ve had paint swatches on our living room wall for a few months, with no real timeline of taking them down. I actually like to leave them up so I can see how they look in all different sorts of light.
In the end, for this project, I went with the lightest shade of blue on the first blue swatch on the left (Tame Teal by Sherwin Williams) and the middle shade of coral in the first swatch in the second row (Coral Mist by Valspar).
Usually once I decide on a color, I get a sample container of paint and paint big swatches on several different walls. Then I let it hang out for at least a couple of days to once again see how it looks in different light. I can be very indecisive, and paint colors can react drastically different during different times of day, so I feel like these steps help me to be sure in my decision and not waste money on paint.
It’s only around $35-$40 for a gallon of paint, but that can add up if you keep repainting because you don’t like the color you chose! Those little sample containers of paint are only around $5 each and well worth it if it helps you commit to a color. I know I said I love painting, but that doesn’t mean I want to paint the same wall over and over again.
In this room, I actually felt confident in my paint choice just by looking at the paint chips and I didn’t end up following my own rules here. I just grabbed a couple of gallons and went to town my daughter’s room!
The Process
I painted all the solid walls first since those were run-of-the-mill and straight forward. Then it was a matter of painting the ombre wall.
I looked up tons of tutorials, but the one that made the most sense was this tutorial from Crown Paints. They even have a super helpful video at the bottom of the page and I actually ended up using really similar colors. Below are their steps, and below each of their steps I included what I did/what I wish I did differently.
One quick note - if you want a smooth transition from color to color, you have to work FAST. This can be intimidating. I pictured myself breaking a nervous sweat trying not to mess up the wall, but honestly once I got started I just went with the flow and I love how it turned out.
To start, pick your two shades you want to ombre with. Picking the lighter colour first, paint the whole wall and let this dry fully
My colors were pretty similar in tone, so I used the teal as my base color and painted the whole wall. After I finished, I realized it probably would have been a better idea to paint only the bottom half of the wall in teal and the top half in coral so the coral was brighter and I didn’t risk any teal showing through. It’s a small thing that I don’t think anyone will notice (except maybe they will now that I told everyone, whoops), but, ya know, hindsight and all that.
After I painted the base color, I measured halfway up the wall and made tick marks from one side of the wall to the other so I knew approximately where the transition to the second color would be. The measurement doesn’t have to be exact, and certainly doesn’t have to be halfway down the wall if you want your ombre to be higher or lower. Use your imagination!
Next, taking your second darker shade, apply colour to the bottom portion of the wall
I did this backwards, but it doesn’t matter. Since I used the teal as the base color and I knew I wanted it on the bottom half of the wall, I painted the coral on the top half.
On a separate board, mix the two colours together evenly
I used a separate paint tray and poured equal amounts of each color, then mixed it with a clean roller. Make sure you mix enough of this combo paint so you don’t have to mix more in the middle of blending. Once again, you need to work fast and having to mix more paint will slow you down and give time for your paint to dry.
Another reason it’s a good idea to mix your combo paint ahead of time is that if you have to mix additional paint partway through working on your transition, you could include too much or too little of one of the colors and it may not blend as well with the first batch of combo paint you’ve already applied to the wall.
Apply the mixed paint to the middle section of your wall, blurring the dividing line of colour
I actually followed this step. Go me!
Soften the divide with a clean roller which will blend the colours together
For this step I used the same roller that I mixed my two paints with. Once I applied my 50/50 mix of color and the roller was less saturated with paint, it was easier to blend the middle color into the pure teal or pure coral. I also lightly dipped my roller in teal or coral as I transitioned closer and closer to the pure colors.
The most difficult part of this project, that no tutorial seemed to talk about, was what to do with the edges of the wall. Since your roller can’t get all the way to the edge, I found that I had to (on the fly, because I wasn’t prepared for this part) grab a brush and blend. If you’re not good at cutting in edges, I highly recommend applying painter’s tape to the adjoining walls before you begin your ombre wall.
And there you have it - how to paint an ombre wall. If you’d like to paint one in your house, I say, give it a try! It’s only paint, afterall. If it turns out poorly, you can always paint over it. Easy peasy. Below is a list of supplies to help you get your ombre on. Enjoy!
Supply list
3 paint trays
3 rollers
1 paint brush
painter’s tape
2 gallons of paint (1 of each color) - this should be more than enough for one wall and you’ll have a lot of extra, but a quart won’t quite be enough.
