When we first decided to go with a Buffalo Plaid (or also known as Gingham) wall design, my initial preference was putting up wallpaper. But as I quickly found out, there was absolutely NO cheap way to do this. My first inspiration was this Gingham Wallpaper, but as I said, after calculating costs plus the possibility of the colour not showing up how I want with the very limited lighting of Theo’s room, I decided that paint was the way to go. That being said, this project is not for the light-hearted.
I am by no means a patient project doer, but the reality is this is in no way a fast project. There are so many steps that require patience. As far as difficulty, it really is not a hard one in terms of skill, but it will test your willpower to do it right if you want perfect crisp lines.
First, I looked at some tutorials online, but because of the size of the room I had to pretty much do my own math and figure out a new process that would work for the Gingham walls I wanted.
Supplies
As for the supplies needed, I ended up using 5* cans of paint total. And this is where I say – do what I say, not as I do lol. My first mistake was being too impatient and just buying the colours based on swatches against the wall, without actually testing the paint on the wall. Do a test of the actual paint on the walls!!! My solution afterward was to dilute my 3 darker colours with about 1/3 can of white paint in each but that was an extra $30 I shouldn’t have needed to spend.
- 1 Gallon Paint for the base layer – BEHR Cameo White
- 1 Quart – BEHR Vintage Mauve
- 1 Quart – BEHR Wheat Bread
- 1 Quart – BEHR Mocha Ice
- 2 Sample cans (equivalent to 1 quart – BEHR Pure White* (if you test your colours you shouldn’t need this)
- 4x 4″ Foam rollers
- 1 Standard low pile roller
- 4 Packs of Masking Tape
- Laser Level (you can get by on a ruler, but I highly recommend this)
- Pencil
Setup for Buffalo Plaid Walls
Before painting your Buffalo plaid walls, make sure your walls are smooth to begin with. This means filling any holes, sanding down the surface, and making sure the walls are ready to be painted.
Base Layer
To get a perfect Buffalo plaid pattern, rather than painting each block separate, starting off with your lightest colour will make it easier to gage the tone differences. As I mentioned above, the tones I had ended up too dark, so I had to correct all the colours by diluting them with white paint to lessen the contrast. Then proceed to paint lightest to darkest.
Taping
The first step to taping is to actually measure your room. My room was 123″ wide and 118″ long. To make things simple, I reduced it down to 10″ squares. Once it’s all done, the eye won’t be able to tell the super minor 1/4″ variation between walls. The height of the room doesn’t really matter, because no matter where the cut off is, it will look natural for top or bottom. I worked my way down, but that meant the bottom squares were more rectangular.
Start with only the horizontal taping (and make sure to measure between the tape so the squares aren’t 12″ in disguise.
The Trick
The real trick to having perfect lines, is to do two things:
- Run a damp cloth over ALL your tape (this allows the glue to release onto the wall, but also ensure it’s fully pressed down).
- Then paint over the new tape in the colour underneath. In my case Cameo White.
Then and only then paint the sections in the next shade up.
Repeat the same damp cloth tape and overpaint trick as you tape new sections for each new shade. And as mentioned, do as I say not as I do with verifying your colours work well.
Repeat while working light to dark.
As you can see the trick to those flawless line holds true. I was so anxious pulling off all that tape, but in the end it was SUCH an accomplishment to have done it right. Despite taking twice as long, this Buffalo plaid turned out perfect!
Now, in our case we also added a touch of vintage vibe by adding moulding to the ceiling, to frame off the space. That’s why my top square isn’t actually square. This is easily adjusted by simply measuring from your ceiling down.
Then we caulked and painted it the same as the window and door trim, and voila!
The Final Buffalo Plaid Reveal
If you want to see the full tour of the room, you can do so (soon). I’m so so proud of the final result. The Buffalo plaid not only looks amazing, but cost literally over a thousand dollars less than wallpaper would have.
Good luck to all those who are trying this tutorial!
