Blocks

Add a checkerboard pattern to an accent wall with the help from the pros at Sherwin-Williams: After your base color is dry, measure your wall length and height. Then divide each by your desired square size. Mark the squares using a carpenter's level, a pencil (or chalk) and low-tack painter's tape. Begin by measuring the desired size of the square down from the top of the wall and use small and light marks going across the wall. (Marks may show through.)

Place a horizontal strip of tape across the wall with the top edge of the tape at your first measurement. Press the tape edges down firmly to prevent the second color from bleeding into the adjacent square. From the bottom edge of the tape strip just applied, measure the desired size of the square down and apply your next strip of tape. Continue to apply horizontal strips of tape all the way down the wall. Check your lines with a carpenter's level occasionally, to make sure they are true.

Courtesy of Sherwin Williams

Starting at the left edge of the wall, measure the desired size of the square across and make a vertical cut in the tape with a utility knife. From that point, measure across the tape, just the width of your tape, and make another cut. Remove the cut section of tape you created. This cut section will be the width of the tape only. This is where you will lay your vertical strips of painter's tape to make your squares. Measure across the desired square size from the cut section, cut and remove another tape-wide section.

Repeat the process across the rest of the wall space. To complete the block pattern, apply vertical strips of tape crossing through the cut spaces you just made. Continue until the wall has your checkerboard pattern. Be sure to press the tape edges down firmly to prevent the second color from bleeding into the adjacent box. Paint and fill in the squares with the top coat (second color) using a mini roller. Fill in every other box down and across, using the same technique.