Learn how to create a painted argyle wall with this tutorial.
Recently an old friend contacted me to paint her nursery wall in an argyle pattern. She’s expecting a boy, and since her husband is a golf pro, they wanted a vintage golf-themed nursery.
I asked for her wall dimensions beforehand, and I made a game plan.
The wall height and width helped determine the height and width of my diamonds. Luckily it worked mathematically to have five diamonds running across and three diamonds running vertically.
It was a little overwhelming when I walked into the room and saw the blank wall. (My friend had painted it the color of the lighter diamond.)
We used Porter Paints for this wall in Ghost Writer and Hot Stone.
I used lots of rulers on this project – level ruler, “regular” ruler, and a tape measure.
I went across the wall and drew lines down the length of the wall – one (center) line for each of the five rows of diamonds. (This is where the level ruler comes in REALLY handy!)
From there, I marked (with dots) the corners of all the diamonds. Then, I connected my dots to draw the diamonds.
I had to paint the diamonds in sections. I did every other diamond in my first round.
Then I went back through and painted the second batch of diamonds.
(After I saw the above picture, I immediately schedule an appointment with my hairdresser to fix the bleach-out bun.)
Once the diamonds are all painted and dried, you can start on the “stripes.” Again, there was a lot of measure and dots involved. I went through and found the center of each diamond and drew a diagonal line connecting them all before I started painting.
For each diagonal line, I used three pieces of tape. I then removed the centerpiece since that is the one I’ll paint.
I then went through and repeated the diagonal lines going the other direction.
The amount of tape I went through was pretty impressive (3 rolls of Frog Tape.) Although it’s expensive, Frog Tape is well worth your money. It really helps prevent the seepage you see with some other painter’s tape.
And that’s it! An argyle painted wall. Simple! No…not really. 🙂 However, it is doable. I completed this wall in 6 kid-free hours. To see my friend’s reveal of the nursery, click HERE.

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This is beautiful! What a unique design and perfect for your friend’s family. Great job!
Thanks, Natalie!
GREAT job!!!
Thank you, Angela!
WOW!!!
Thanks, Becky! 🙂
Absolutely gorgeous!
Thanks so much, Pamela!
Just beautiful, Sara, and so precisely done. Bravo!
Thanks so much, Julie!
WOW!!! I am still wowed after seeing your how-to video. I really enjoy painting and consider myself pretty good at it but…the tape lines!!! Holy cow! I am blown away by them? You are awesome and it’s very enjoyable to see what you will come up with next! Thank for sharing some of it.
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment, Patty! The tape lines aren’t as terrible as they looked…just time consuming. I appreciate your kind words, and good luck on your next painting project!
I have a quick question. I see you indicate the color of the lighter diamond, but what color was used for the darker diamond?
Hi Michael – Unfortunately it’s been 4-5 years since I painted this so I don’t remember. I’m sorry I’m no help!
How did you determine how many diamonds to make across and down?
My wall is 190.5 long and 99.5 high.
Hi Tonya, unfortunately this post is so old, that I can’t remember the process I did to figure it out! Grid paper is super helpful when trying to figure out projects like this – good luck!!