5 paint ideas that are easy to do – and will kill an hour or two

We've said it before and we will say it again, a silver lining to all this social distancing/ self-isolating is that you now have loads of time to make your house look lovely. So we have been coming up with loads of easy hack and DIYs that will keep you busy and transform your space. Today it's all about paint, easy paint ideas that look cute and barely need any supplies. If you already have everything you need for these hacks you can order them online so still no need to leave the house. 

Get scrolling to get inspired, and for more DIY ideas head to our hub page. 

1. Add some dots 

This is a great paint idea because you can get the kid's involved too. It's not meant to look super neat, the dots aren't perfect or all the same size and we love the overall, relaxed look. It would love really cool in monochrome too if you want to give it a grown up twist.

For this paint idea just pick four or five different colours (you can order paint from B&Q) and pour them out into different containers. Use a clean small paintbrush for each colour and have a practice getting the shape right on some paper and when you feel confident just start adding dots to your wall. Easy peasy.

2. Or create stripes 

This is such an easy hack. To create the stripes use masking tape (we think Frog Tape is best) and a long ruler to create straight lines down or across your wall, each piece of tape should be the same distance apart. Once you have mapped out your pattern with the masking tape paint every other gap you have created with the masking tape. Let it dry, remove the masking tape and voila. 

3. Create a stylish geometric pattern 

Another great paint effect you can create using just masking tape. First plan out your shape using a long ruler and tape and then get painting in between the gaps. We love the subtle pastels in this room, perfect for a bedroom or living room, and how cute would this look in the background of your next video meeting?

4. Get a trendy distressed plaster look 

We have been noticing a growing trend (when we say 'noticing' we mean we have seen it on Instagram) for bare plaster walls, you know walls that look like you ripped all the wallpaper off, barely sanded it down and just left it to do its thing, but in a good way. 

For this look all you need to do is pick two different hues of chalk paint, a darker one and a lighter one. Go in with your first coat of the darker shade and just keep it really unfinished looking. It doesn't matter if there are gaps, the rougher the better really. While the coat is still wet, take a material rag or a sponge and rub at the paint, add more paint to get more of a swirling 'plaster' pattern going. Leave this to dry.

Once the darker coat is dry, get a larger sponge, something really textured like a sea sponge would work best and go in with the lighter colour over the top, making sure you leave sections where you can see the darker colour underneath.

5. Paint yourself a headboard

Super easy to do, again just mask off the area you want to paint above your bed and get painting. We have also seen this paint idea creating a semi-circle shape above the bed. For this use a piece of string that is the length of the circumference of the half-circle you want to create. Tie a pencil to the end, and find the middle point of your bed head. Tape the other end of the string to this point and use the pencil to draw a perfect semi-circle onto the wall. Then just carefully paint inside the pencil line.  

Read more:

• How to paint a room: walls and all, here's everything you need to know
• How to paint tiles: give a tired looking bathroom space an affordable face lift
• Bathroom paint colours: 17 ideas to spruce up your space in 2020