The feeling you get when you walk into a house is influenced by many factors. Light, color, flooring and furniture all make certain impressions in the mind, and those skilled at home decor understand how to use each to create a desired effect. To this toolbox, the accent wall is a worthy addition.

An accent wall is any wall in a room that’s colored or patterned differently from the rest to create visual impact. Accent walls break up what might otherwise be a visually monotonous space. They also draw attention to a certain area or feature of the room. Some accent walls are simple, featuring nothing more than a color change. Others, like dynamic accent walls, are intricate and complex, with tile, stone, woodwork or other materials situated to create texture and draw the eyes and attention of visitors. These sorts of accent walls are often stunning, but require lots of time, money and skill to install. That’s where much simpler approaches to accent walls, like the one we’re about to show you, can help.

How to Create an Accent Wall with Paper Plates

@nittas_homeandstyle 3D accent wall with paper plates 🤩🤩 #fyp #walldesign #walldecor #3dwallart #3dwall #dollartreefinds #viral ♬ CAP – Burrell

We discovered this hack on TikTok that shows what may be the simplest, most cost-effective method of creating a 3-dimensional accent wall around—the paper plate accent wall. All you need is a tape measure, pencil, level, a pair of scissors, a package or two of white paper plates and a hot glue gun with some glue sticks at the ready. Do it right, and the texture and pattern created by the repurposed paper plates are quite elegant and striking. Here’s how to do it.

• Decide how much of your wall you want to accent, and how close to the floor you’d like the paper plate pattern to begin. Use your level, tape measure and pencil to mark a very light level line at this height (you can also begin the plates right at floor level).
• Squeeze a little hot melt glue onto the rim of each plate, then stick them to your wall one at a time, using your level line (or floor) as a guide.
• Fasten another plate right next to the first. Continue working your way across the wall, then add more rows, each directly above the previous one.
• Once you’ve covered your accent wall with a single layer of plates, add a second layer on top. Arrange each row of the second layer to evenly cover the seams between plates in the first layer, giving the wall an elegant, patterned appearance.
• Cut plates with scissors as needed to work around windows, doors, hanging pictures and other obstacles.

@nittas_homeandstyle Amazing 3D wall design with dollar tree paper plates 🤩🤩 items used: foam board and party plates from dollar tree #fyp #walldesign #walldecor #3dwall #3dwalldesign #viral ♬ dance(256762) – TimTaj

If you’d prefer not to mount plates directly to your wall with hot melt glue, try this version of the hack instead. It involves creating a mounting surface for the plates with sheets of white Bristol board taped together. Use as many sheets as you like to create the ideal-sized accent wall for your space, then mount the plate-clad backing to your wall with double-sided tape or sticky tack. You’ll still be using something sticky on your wall, but not nearly as much as with the direct plate-to-wall method.

How to Elevate Your Paper Plate Accent Wall

White paper plates are all well and good, but what if you want an accent wall with a splash of just the right color or colors? That’s where this color sensor comes in. Paired with an app on your phone, it gives an exact readout of any color, along with the specific paints you need to buy and mix to create that color. Not only that, but it also calculates mathematically complimentary colors to any color you scan. Want to match your paper plates to an existing wall color, but don’t know what paint was originally used? This device can help. Want the plates on your accent wall to be a different but complimentary color to the rest of the room? The device removes all guesswork. I have one myself and use it regularly for interior painting work. It’ll take your paper plate accent wall to the next level.