This How To Brighten Up Walls Without Paint post was not planned. I didn’t even have this on the planning radar for blog posts. I do have to say though, the best posts can come from those things you learn along the way and aren’t planning for. We learn all kinds of tips and tricks by trying to figure out how to do something we are having a problem with.
My “problem” occurred after the holidays this year. I am always looking for a change in our home after the holidays. I want to brighten things up and start fresh. This year, I was telling Matt that I wanted to paint the living room. I felt like the walls were drab and a new color would brighten up the space. This talk quickly started bringing back memories from the last time we painted the living room. Our living room is not just four walls.
It leads down the hallway and into our entry with tall ceilings. It is not an easy “room” to paint. With that memory and the fact that we are in the middle of other projects and have just found out that we will be tackling our second flip house project, I had to let go of the living room paint project.
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If I couldn’t paint, I started rearranging some things and adding new pieces to our living room. Matt was hanging up some new pictures I bought from Antique Farmhouse (you can see my unboxing video HERE) so I started cleaning one of the walls where the kids always leave hand prints when they come in from playing outside. I got done cleaning all the fingerprints off and thought I would just clean the entire wall.
WHOA! The entire wall was dirty! I COULD NOT BELIEVE HOW BLACK MY RAG WAS AFTER DOING THAT LITTLE WALL!
This entire process was shared on my Instagram Stories as it was unfolding (find me on Instagram HERE). I got such a huge response from those stories! People couldn’t believe it and we were inspiring a lot of people to clean their walls as well.
The best part of the cleaning was that it made all the walls bright and fresh again. It looked like we had just painted! I fell in love with the color again and it made me excited to decorate. Who knew? We didn’t need to go through all the work of painting, we just needed to brighten up walls by cleaning them!
Supplies Needed To Brighten Up Walls:
Magic Erasers
Damp Cloths (we used these)
Thieves Cleaner
Spray Bottle
As I said, we weren’t planning on cleaning our walls on this day so we tried a few different things to clean them the best and found the perfect combination.
This worked best: I put a cap full of Thieves Cleaner inside my Grove Collaborative glass spray bottle and filled the rest up with water. Then, I dampened a Magic Eraser and a cloth.
I need to tell you that the Thieves cleaner smells amazing and it is a natural antibacterial cleaner. I felt like I was not only brightening up walls, but cleaning the germs away too!
Tip*: We found that working in small sections was easier to control. We started out by spraying an entire wall and then trying to clean it all at once, but it didn’t work as well. If we worked in 2′ by 2′ sections, it worked better.
The cleaning process couldn’t be easier. We sprayed the Thieves cleaner on the wall and then used the damp Magic Eraser to scrub the wall. Then, we wiped up the dirt with the damp cloth.
That’s all it took and the entire space was brighter! Matt and I were both amazed to see the difference between where we had cleaned and what we still needed to clean. Our rags were black. ICK! Now that I know all we need to do it clean the walls when I want to brighten up a space, my OCD will probably kick in and I will be washing walls once a month. #ihopenot
With all the comments I received on my Instagram stories while we were cleaning the walls, I know a lot of people were like us and didn’t really think to clean their walls. My mom has always told me that cleaning the walls was important, but I never paid much attention because I thought she was going overboard. She was right………….. AGAIN.
If you want to brighten up walls in your space without spending a lot of money or having to go through the tedious task of painting, try cleaning the walls.
It was so much easier than painting and once we got in the groove, it went pretty fast. And, it gave us the same outcome – a brighter room.
This entire cleaning process mad me so excited to decorate our house again! I have been moving things around and finding new treasures to add to the space. I have found my groove again.
Have you ever cleaned your walls? What room do you want to be brighter in your home?
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If you liked How To Brighten Up Walls, you will love these other easy ideas that will make you love your home again:
The Easy Way To Paint Paneling
The Best Way To Organize Hats, Gloves and Scarves This Winter
How To Paint Furniture Without Sanding
HA HA HA- Who washes their walls??? Told ya