Building a creative wood slat accent wall starts with a fun design! We took inspiration from the more traditional, vertical slat walls and added a couple of our own unique twists!
We incorporated a lot of angled cuts and a two-tone color scheme (paint and stain). These additions elevated our design to modern wall art!
Looking to create a similar wood slat accent wall in your home? I’m sharing how we were able to bring this design to life and hopefully, help guide you through this fun DIY project!
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Wood Slat Accent Wall Placement
To truly make a statement with this wood slat accent wall, size and placement are very important! I recommend choosing a space in your home where this wall feature can be the focal point! We chose a tall empty wall in our entryway. Now, anyone who enters our home will immediately lay eyes on this 14 ft beauty! This entire slat wall project was completed using pine board and I highly recommend a laser level for projects such as this!
Diagonal Wood Slat Wall Section
The diagonal slat wall section is great for creating contrast between the vertical slats! Since studs are typically inserted every 16″ in the walls, we secured each wood piece every 16″ to ensure they were hitting the studs. We first installed all the diagonal slats to get their correct spacing and placement. Then we used a ruler to draw a vertical line down all 8 pieces to cut and create that clean, perfectly aligned look!
Vertical Wood Slat Wall Section
To create an accurate diagonal cut of the vertical slats, be sure they’re already evenly spaced as they would appear on your wall. Determine the maximum height of your vertical slat pieces. Then use a ruler to draw a diagonal line, starting from your maximum height and ending at your minimum height.
Wood Slat Paint and Stain Selections
We cut each angled piece with our miter saw to create those beautifully clean lines shown above! As for the stain we used, it’s my personal combination of Natural Stain and Early American Stain. I mix them until I’m happy with the new color! I really need to jot down the ratio! We used SW Iron Ore to paint the diagonal slat pieces!
Wood Slat Wall Install
For the diagonal section, we used an impact driver with a countersink drill bit to drive the screws deeper into the slat pieces. This then allowed us to fill the holes, using spackling paste, lightly sand them and apply some touch-up paint.
To avoid holes in the front of the vertical slat pieces, we took a different approach. We used a brad nailer and nailed 3 brad nails into the back of each slat. We then used a pair of cutting pliers to cut each nailhead off, at an angle, so they’d be nice and sharp. Once we determined the placement of the individual vertical slat, we pushed it into the wall. This is a great renter-friendly technique!
Creative Wood Slat Accent Wall – Reveal
We managed to complete the lower section of this slat wall over one weekend. We decided to live with this look for a couple of months before completing the top section. This creative wood slat accent wall turned out better than I could have hoped for! It adds character to this space and truly reflects our style. If you ever see a similar design on Pinterest or Instagram, remember where you saw it FIRST!
Slat Wall Recommendations
It worked out really well for us when we painted the diagonal slats before installing them. After installation, some paint touch-ups will be necessary but I really think this was the right process for us.
We also used Jenga pieces, placed on their sides, as the perfect spacers between all the slats. This resulted in approximately 0.25″ spacing.
I hope this creative slat accent wall has inspired you to have some fun in your own home! If you’re looking for more accent wall ideas, be sure to check out our other weekend Modern Slat Wall and Master Bedroom Shiplap Wall.
Until next time friends!
Aminah Chung
What were the dimensions for the wood you used and where can I find them?
Hi Marissa,I used pine and the specific one is linked in this blog post. The highlighted words are links.
OMG! That’s extremely impressive! I’m just going plane old vertical and I’m nervous about THAT math!!! Fabulous job!❤️
Thank you Ann! Pick an even number and let that guide you on how many slats to use. Good luck!