I’ve seen those rock accent wall pictures on Pinterest, Instagram, Houzz, and everywhere. I absolutely love how it looks, but I couldn’t figure out what material they used or if I did find something, it was ridiculously expensive.

Therefore, I decided to make my own DIY hack to give me the look I wanted for only $70 since I already have most of the supplies!

And I couldn’t be happier with how it has turned out! So, let’s jump in!

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STEPS

Please feel free to check out my full length explanation in this YouTube video or you can check out this brief overview video. As always, do not forget to subscribe to my channel!

To start off, this is what I was starting out with…

1. First, prep the wall you will be using for your accent wall.

• Sand the wall to make sure that the plaster will stick.
• Wipe it down so that there isn’t a bunch of dust (from sanding), otherwise that could also prevent the plaster from sticking.

2. Make the rock-shaped molds using plaster cloth, tinfoil, and water.

• Mold the tinfoil to desired shape.
• I started out randomly because I wasn’t even sure if this was going to work. If I had to do it again, I would look at my Natural Wall Pinterest board (scroll down to see it) and pick a rock look/design and try to mimic that.

• Afterwards, dip plaster cloth in water. I used a bowl and dunked the plaster cloth in it. It should be completely wet.

• Following that, place the wet plaster cloth on top of the molded tinfoil. Then, I gently pressed it into the crevices of the tinfoil to give it a more authentic rock look.

• Let the mold dry.
• Then, gently remove the mold from the tinfoil.
• If you have a lot of flat edges on your molds, feel free to cut those off with scissors so you don’t have a lot of flat area on your wall.

3. Layout rock accent wall

• Place the rock molds onto the wall with tape to see how they look together.
• I knew I wanted to mount my TV on this column-like thing, so I purposely made the area where I would be mounting my TV pretty flat.
• You can move things around until it gives you the look that you are looking for.
• There were a couple times when I realized something was missing in an area and I would make a specific mold for that area.

4. Attach the rock molds to the wall

• Once you like the layout, attach the rock molds to the wall with plaster of Paris.
• It’s good to mix / make small amounts at a time because it dries very quickly.
• It’s easiest to attach the molds to the wall when the plaster of paris is similar to the consistency of a thick milkshake.
• Since I would mix it with a paint stick, I just ended up using the paint stick to apply it to the wall.
• You just put plaster of paris over the edges of the mold where it meets the wall.
• I would leave the tape on other sides and attach the plaster of paris one side at a time so that the molds wouldn’t move or slide down.

5. Smooth over the rock wall

• Then mix the plaster of Paris so it’s more liquidy, sort of as if your milkshake melted. You still want it thicker than water, but not as thick as a milkshake.
• This is so you can take a brush (I used an old throw away brush since the plaster of paris will be hard to get out of the brush, so I wouldn’t use a nice one) and apply a thin layer of plaster of paris over the molds.
• This helps cover the holes in the plaster cloth and gives the “rock” a more uniform look.
• Then, let the plaster of Paris dry.

Cassie Tips:

• I was getting air bubbles when it dried and it was bugging me. So I looked into it and if you pour the water first, then pour small amounts of the plaster of paris at a time and let the plaster of paris sink into the water, you get fewer air bubbles!
• I had a plastic cup with water in it that I would set the brush in when I was mixing more plaster of paris so it didn’t dry up and make the brush too hard to use.

6. Paint prep

• I cleaned up the pieces from the plaster of paris on the ground so it wouldn’t ruin my paint job.

• Then I prepped the area to avoid spraying paint everywhere. You can get more specific details on how I prepped it at my post with tips and tricks for using a paint sprayer.

7. Paint your rock accent wall.

• I used a paint sprayer because I thought it was going to be easier than having to paint all of the cracks and crevices.
• Check out my blog post about how to use a paint sprayer with tips and tricks!

8. Touch up any areas on your accent wall that need it.

• After I painted, I noticed some areas I wanted to fix. For example, I felt like some areas looked more like wrinkles than like a rock. I also wanted to make that corner look more like a rock because having it go flat at the corner sort of ruined the illusion of a rock.
• So I added more plaster of Paris / molds on top of it. Since I was using a matte paint, it was able to stick on top of the paint. However, if you are using a glossy paint, then you will probably need to do some sanding / deglossing before you add the plaster of paris / molds.

• Then, I repainted the wall.

And that’s it!

If you want to see some of the rock accent wall inspiration I came across, check out my Natural Wall Pinterest board!