Budget Bathrooms: Painting Harlequin Diamonds Made Easy

People often think this faux painting technique is difficult, due in large part to the fact that the results are so impressive. However, this tutorial will walk you through the process step-by-step. I promise you will not need a degree in mathematics to get it done. You can achieve the dramatic results harlequin diamonds provide, but you must be willing to plan your space carefully in advance. Keep in mind that you should start by painting the walls in the lightest of the colors you will be using. For this particular project, I selected light gray and worked with only two colors. Here are the items I used to complete this project:

1. a 24-inch level
2. painter’s tape
3. 2 different shades of latex paint
4. a high quality paint brush
5. a white colored pencil or chalk

I began by planning the size of my diamonds. I applied this treatment from chair rail to the ceiling, for a total height of 64-inches. My diamonds are 16-inches tall to ensure that my final columns would be 4-high. My long wall was 84-inches wide, and my diamonds were planned at 9.33-inches wide to create rows 9 diamonds wide. If you are completing more than one wall in the same room, keep in mind that the diamond height will always remain the same, but the width may vary slightly in order to maintain a whole number of diamonds on each wall. Harlequin diamonds are often planned with a length that is about twice the width.

Next, I used my level and chalk to draw level lines horizontally at intervals half the height of my finished diamonds. For this project, the diamonds were 16-inches long, so my horizontal lines began 8-inches from the ceiling, all the way down to the chair rail. I then used my chalk to place dots at intervals as far apart as the width of my diamonds. Keep in mind that every other row had dots that were placed halfway between the dots on the row above and below it. Once I completed this work, I had created a perfectly measured grid on the wall.

Next, I used masking tape to connect-the-dots. This was completed in two “cycles” because tape was covering future adjacent diamonds. When the first cycle of diamonds were taped, I painted them in the darker color. After the first set of diamonds dried, I removed the tape and repeated the process on the second set of diamonds.

To complete this project, I applied metallic glaze to the entire wall. I also added fleur-de-lis upholstery nails to each diamond point for an extra special touch.