6 Fun Ways to Decorate With ... Tape?
Tape is one of the most hardworking tools we have at home. The adhesive roll can be a fast fix for a torn page in a book or helpful in protecting a surface from paint. And if you live in a rental or are the noncommittal type (like me) when it comes to your walls — washi tape, duct tape or metallic tape can be a budget-friendly way to add a decorative touch. See how these six creative homeowners and renters from our My Houzz series added a cool and sticky design element to their homes.
1. Nature-inspired accent wall in a home office. The accent wall above stylist Liz Martin’s desk in her Charleston, South Carolina, home office is a DIY wallpaper-inspired hack using a combination of black-and-white striped washi tape and faux fern leaves. Martin says she wanted the wall to add a chic and modern element to the room without her having to repaint.
Martin was inspired by similar DIY tutorials online that use flowers and washi tape. She used faux ferns from a hobby shop for a long-lasting look.
Here’s another view of the accent wall in Martin’s home office.
2. Gold glam in Palm Springs. Krys Melo added a little midcentury-inspired sparkle to the folding doors of the bedroom closet in her 1960s California apartment. The DIY and decorating enthusiast created a diamond pattern with gold tape. The starburst-shaped closet pulls, found online, add another period-specific touch.
Here’s another view of the closet. Melo rents the apartment with her husband, so they were strategic in how they chose to update their space. The walls are covered in a gold-and-white-patterned removable wallpaper (Thermoscad by Bobby Berk).
3. Geometric gold accent wall in Boston. Houzz contributor Faith Towers says she indulged in her love of a feminine pink-and-gold color scheme in decorating her home office and crafting space. On the back wall, she created a wall-to-wall desk out of long wooden planks that are meant to look like shiplap, providing an ample work surface. On the back wall, she says, “I wanted to create the look of wallpaper without the cost and time normally associated with it, so I made the triangle ‘wallpaper’ out of polyester metalized film tape.”
Here’s a closer view of the walls decorated with gold metallic tape.
4. Kids’ Scandinavian-inspired reading nook. Interior designer Ginger Curtis of Fort Worth, Texas, designed and built this lofted bunk bed and play space with husband Eric for their two youngest kids. The lower bed is on casters that can be locked in place. The walls are accented with black triangular wall decals. “I arranged them 55 different ways until we settled on this,” Curtis says. “The great thing about decals is that they are forgiving — easy to peel off and rearrange.”
A treehouse-like “vine” made of wooden beads helps to visually enclose the creativity nook.
The nook includes a little reading area. Curtis made the house design with black removable tape, adding a reading light plus ledges to display books and art projects.
5. Mostly monochromatic in Milan. White is the dominant color in Laura Dragotti and Roberto Pistolesi’s two-story apartment in Italy, from floors to walls, furniture fabrics to accessories.
On the side of a small wood armoire — it belonged to Dragotti’s great-grandparents and was repainted a creamy white — are meaningful photos and monochromatic mementos attached with little strips of washi tape.
6. Artful duct tape hacks in
New York. Laura Handler lives in a gleaming 960-square-foot apartment in Harlem and used patterned duct tape to cover what were otherwise unsightly things. The product designer works from home and used black-and-white checkerboard duct tape to accent the edge of her workspace, and covered her scanner with the patterned tape as well. The shelving supports for her wall-mounted birch veneer shelves are covered with white duct tape.
The edges of Handler’s television are covered with duct tape in a burlap print. The TV blends in with the two books it sits on — bound 1920s issues of The New York Times.
Handler covered her beige plastic doorbell with patterned duct tape for a fun and decorative touch.