This Easy $10 DIY Totally Transformed My Living Room (It Only Takes an Hour!)

We have a great arched doorway in our entryway and living room that’s always needed a little something more to make it feel special. The room is already very fun and colorful, so the possibilities were endless. I’d considered painting the interior frame a contrasting color, but that didn’t seem like it would be enough — I really wanted something special.

As I was scrolling through screenshots on my phone, I noticed an image I’d saved from a vintage tile seller I follow online (@vintagetileshop) and instantly knew I wanted to try to re-create the shapes as a border over the archway.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to consistently make the shapes the same size if I tried freehanding everything, so I made it easy on myself by using paint daubers I picked up at the dollar store, and a stencil of the leaf shape I cut out of cardboard. Because our walls were already pink, I decided to go with two different shades of pink for the border. The lighter shade was Jaipur Pink by Sherwin Williams, and the darker was a custom color match that I found in my samples stash. Because I used paint I already had, the project only cost me $1.25 for the daubers — plus my time, of course! 

I started in the very middle of the arch where it comes to a point and traced around the dauber to place the first dot. I worked out from there, tracing the leaf shape and leaving space for the dots. After everything was traced in pencil, I painted in the leaves with Jaipur Pink, and erased the pencil after the paint had dried. Next up, I connected the leaves with the large dauber. I took a step back and liked it, but still felt like something was missing, so I went back to the dauber package, grabbed a size down and added a Jaipur Pink dot.

I’m really happy with how it turned out — even though it’s not perfectly symmetrical! I love the colors, how it accentuates the archway, and how it ties it in with the rest of our colorful, happy living room.