Stacey Solomon reveals her easy six step method on how to create a feature wall to her cladding from Pickle Cottage
STACEY Solomon may have started out on The X Factor, but she’s now more known for her incredible DIY and home decorating hacks.
In fact, her Instagram is a collage of home improvements and fans love her creative designs, from a jungle feature wall to a custom-made rose lamp.
The mum-of-four’s designs are so popular she has now released a book, Tap to Tidy at Pickle Cottage where she spills all on how to create her DIY designs.
Feature wall
Stacey Solomon‘s feature wall for Rex went viral earlier this year and now, the DIY whizz has shared how you can do it too.
First, she painted the room white so she had a clean canvas before deciding what to do next.
What you’ll need
- Three different coloured paints
- A pencil
- Frog tape
- Paintbrush
- Wall stickers
Mark your design
Next, Stacey then marked out her design, she recommends dividing it into three sections.
She adds: “I decided to divide the wall with diagonal lines from each top corner. I ended the right-hand line where the diagonals crossed in the middle and extended the lefthand diagonal to the bottom corner.”
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This gave me three different-sized triangular shapes. I planned to leave the top triangle white and decorate it with stickers, then paint each lower triangle in a different shade of green
Choose your colours
The next step is to pick the colours, Stacey kept one section white, and painted another using Frenchic Al Fresco City Slicker and mixed black and white paint to create a dark grey for the other panel.
Mask off the different areas using Frog Tape
Tape your lines so they meet in the middle, Stacey adds that she just taped lines across my wall, stood back to take a look, and then readjusted the tape until I was happy with each line.
Stacey adds it’s worth taking your time making sure this part is perfect and you can go one step further using a laser spirit level.
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Get painting
Now it’s time to start painting your sections, Stacey recommends starting with the lower lefthand section and using a paintbrush to paint one line halfway over the Frog Tape and then leaving it to dry.
This creates a seal between the tape and wall, leading to a cleaner finish when you peel off the tape.
You can then paint the second section once the first is dry and reposition a clean length of tape along the edge of the first area, just covering the paint to ensure there are no gaps.
Finally, Stacey added wall stickers to the white section. The animal wall stickers came from Amazon.
She adds that she dotted them around, whacking them on anywhere to create the feature wall.
LED rose light
Stacey made her daughter Rose, her own personalised lamp to welcome her into the world using items from Ikea, here’s how.
What you’ll need:
- A fake rose
- A string of battery-operated LED lights
- A stand with a glass casing for them
DISMANTLE THE ROSE partially by removing a few outer petals.
COVER THE BATTERY unit with those petals using a glue gun.
THREAD THE LED LIGHTS through the rose, then re-assemble it.
GLUE THE ROSE to the base, standing it upright, coil the remaining LED lights inside the glass casing, before closing it.
Cladding wall
Cladding walls have grown popular thanks to their country farmhouse vibe, and Stacey shares how you can easily recreate the look she has done all over her house.
Stacey adds they work great in smaller rooms where you want to make them look larger, so decided to create the look in her downstairs loo.
What you’ll need
- Sugar soap
- Pre-primed MDF tongue-and-groove cladding
- Laser spirit level
- No More Nails glue
Clean your walls
Simply dilute it in warm water and wipe the areas with a cloth or sponge and then rinse with clean water. Allow plenty of time for it to dry before doing anything else. Easy!
Work out how much cladding you’ll need
Measure the width of each wall and add those measurements together to give you the perimeter of the room.
Next, divide that perimeter measurement by the width of the individual cladding panels to give you the number needed.
Or you could just take the measurements into the DIY store and they will tell you what you need.
Stacey’s top tip top is to always buy an extra pack or two because as long as the pack isn’t open, you can take it back to the store for a refund as there is nothing worse than getting to the end and realising you are one panel short.
Choose your cladding
You can choose from a range of sizes and colours. Stacey used pre-primed MDF tongue-and-groove cladding, which just needed to be painted.
There is also the option of uPVC cladding, which is wipe-clean and doesn’t need treating.
She adds these types of cladding panels, which interconnect have a tongue along one long edge and a corresponding groove on the other edge, so the tongue slots into the groove of the next piece.
Plan the position
Stacey started the cladding on the back wall in the middle of the wall and worked outwards into the corners.
On the side walls, started from the corner nearest the door and worked towards the back wall. In the corners, where the space left was too narrow for a full panel, she cut each panel down to fit the space.
Fix the first cladding
On the side wall nearest the door, Stacey placed the grooved edge of the cladding panel flat to the corner of the wall to keep it as straight as possible.
Everything will look ‘off’ if the cladding is not completely straight, so she recommends using a spirit level to make sure the panels are vertical.
She then used No More Nails Glue down the back of each panel ina zigzag line before slotting them together and sticking them to the wall.
Adjust each panel as you go
If you live in an old house the walls are bound to be uneven so take a step back before glueing each panel to ensure they look as even as possible.
Stacey got a long bit of wood and wedged it between the cladding panels that were threatening to pop up for 24 hours, to keep them in place while the glue dried.
Cut down any panels to fit
Now’s the time to cut any panels down that wouldn’t fit on the wall.
Stacey used a marker pen to draw on the panels where the cuts needed to be made and then used a jigsaw to cut out the shapes.
She adds you do need to be precise as the panel will be on show, which is why you should buy more panels than needed in case you make a mistake.
Finish the cladding with caulk
Once the glue has dried apply a thin line of caulk along the top and bottom edges to tidy it all up.
Paint the cladding
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Now is the time to paint your cladding, Stacey recommends using a satin or gloss paint to help hide imperfections as well as being easier to wipe down.
Extracted from Tap to Tidy at Pickle Cottage by Stacey Solomon (Ebury Press, £17.99).
