You wouldn't know this chic bedroom wall panelling makeover cost less than £100

Whether you're looking for small bedroom ideas or need some inspiration to elevate a plain space, decorative walls are a great solution – and this owner created his luxurious bedroom wall panelling idea for under £100.

‘According to Checkatrade, the average cost of wall panelling with a professional is over £200,' says Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk (opens in new tab). That's why taking it on as a DIY project could be the answer if you're looking to spend less – plus you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you did in fact 'do it yourself'.

Bedroom wall panelling

Luke Watkins from South Wales, who works in marketing and posts YouTube videos at Project Real Home (opens in new tab), shared his budget hack for making wall panels at home using paint and MDF.  

‘I got this idea when looking for inspiration on sites such as Pinterest and Instagram,' he says. ‘My girlfriend and I wanted to use a neutral colour palette in our master bedroom and looked for a way to incorporate this into the room without just painting the entire wall. When we saw wall panels online, we knew that we wanted to create something like this for ourselves.'

Before

Previously, the room was painted all one colour, and desperately needed an update. The couple were keen to add some interest and wall panelling seemed the best solution – but how did Luke manage to do it for under £100?

After

The new-look bedroom has a soft, neutral palette with white, taupe and blush pink colours used to create a serene and tranquil sleep space. 'We decided to take the panels about two-thirds up the wall to leave some white space around it in order to brighten up the room,' says Luke.

His first step was a trip to B&Q (opens in new tab), where he colour-matched a Valspar paint to Farrow & Ball's London Stone shade for £27, before picking up some No More Nails glue (opens in new tab), wood filler and primer. Next was a stop at Homebase (opens in new tab) for two packs of six 10cm x 120cm MDF boards, with all the materials coming it at just under £100.

‘I started the project by measuring up,' says Luke. 'Then I cut the boards to the length I wanted, ensuring they went two-thirds of the way up the wall as I wanted. Then I glued the boards to the wall using No More Nails, along with a spirit level to ensure each board was sitting straight as I attached it. I used caulking to fill in the gaps between the boards and the wall, then covered the parts of the wall I didn’t want painted with Frog Tape® (opens in new tab), such as the skirting boards and the wall above the panelling.'

Priming the panelling was next up on Luke's job list, before he painted it in his chosen colour. 'I needed two coats of paint for the coverage to be good,' he says, 'but cutting the boards to the correct length was the biggest challenge during this project. Luckily I have a circular saw which made it much easier to get a perfect cut on the MDF boards.'

Fresh white bedding, on-trend blush cushions and shapely bedside lamps completed the bedroom makeover, which Luke and his girlfriend can now enjoy ‘We're really happy with how much better the room looks, especially once we added the bed back in and some decorative accessories,’ he says.

We think the pair have done a fantastic job creating a luxurious scheme to be proud of.