Thanks to our boys, we (until this past weekend!) had three lovely drywall holes in our home! When Owen was a baby, he went through a stage of taking the plastic caps off the door stops around the house – you know, the ones that make a fun twanging sound. We removed all the plastic caps as they were choking hazards. Then, Gresham went through a stage of taking off the twangers altogether and pretending they were “trumpets.” (Please tell me that your boys do things like this too!!!) The lack of door stops led to two doorknob shaped holes in the drywall – one by the front door and one in the master bedroom. The third hole was created by boys opening their bedroom curtains by hanging on them and pulling, which ripped the wall anchors right out of the wall. It’s hard to hang the curtain rod back up with a GAPING hole where the screws should go!

Anyway, my parents recently had their kitchen remodeled, and their contractor used this neat trick for repairing drywall. It seemed like a much better idea to us than the kits you can buy that involve attaching a piece of mesh to the hole and then filling it up with tons of spackling. My husband was able to repair all three holes in one morning!

For this project you need:

  • A piece of drywall the same thickness as what is on your walls
  • A saw to cut the drywall with
  • Screws
  • Nails
  • A scrap of wood (or one for each hole)
  • Spackling
  • Sandpaper
  • Touch-up paint

**Note: I took these pictures at different times of day, so the wall appears to change color. It really is the same wall!

Step 1: Cut the hole to a square shape. It will be easier to fill with a square shaped piece of drywall!

Step 2: Find a piece of scrap wood that will fit into the hole and hang over on each side so that you can screw it in above and below the hole. We did ours vertically because there was a stud in the way. You can also run the scrap wood from side to side and screw it on to the left and right of the hole. Drive a nail into the middle of the scrap wood before inserting it in the wall so that you have something to hold onto. Remove the nail after the scrap wood is in place.

Step 3: With the scrap wood in place, you now have something to attach the drywall to! Cut a piece the size of your hole, and screw it to the wood. No more hole! Now it’s time to make it look pretty. Well, prettier.

Step 4: Cover the area with spackling. The kind we used goes on pink and then turns white as it dries. If you have textured walls, leave the spackling rough looking.

Step 5: Sand down the rough spackling with a little sandpaper, and paint the wall!

Here is our finished wall! We didn’t get the texture quite right, so if any of you have done this and have tips to offer on how to replicate the wall texture a little better, please comment! However, it’s still better than the huge hole we had to start with. This wall is right by our front door, so we’ll probably cover the spot with one of those wooden doorknob wall protectors.

Please tell me I’m not the only one with boys putting holes in the drywall! Share your hole-in-the-wall stories please!

Linked to Works for Me Wednesday

16 Comments

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  1. Mrs. M Nov 28, 2011

    lol...crack me up! Only mom's of boys would need to know how to repair drywall. And oh goodness can I relate.
    In aug, I repaired a HUGE drywall whole (the size of a child) and used my electric knife to reshape the whole because my little handsaw was just not cutting it....no jigsaw in the house...and a husband away for work....voila! Worked like a charm.
    I've been reading your blog for sometime and really appreciate it. It's so great to read a boy focussed blog. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    1. Sarah Nov 29, 2011

      The size of a child? I bet that one had a good story to go with it! Unfortunately, I think the destruction around our house is going to get worse before it gets better... They are pretty harmless with basketball in the house, etc. now, but when they're all teenagers...

      Reply
  2. Kate @ Puddles and Gumboots Nov 29, 2011

    unfortunately my boys have done this too!

    Reply
  3. Jefferson Schonert Nov 29, 2011

    Very good blog, thank you so much for your time in writting this post. Appreciated your time sharing this post with all of us.

    Reply
  4. Brittney Nov 29, 2011

    Haha my 2 year old son somehow kicked a hole into our kitchen wall! We also had a dog start chewing at the corner of a wall one night, and she managed to create a hole big enough to almost fit herself into, and she was a golden retriever! My husband's getting good at this wall repair thing!

    Reply
    1. Sarah Nov 29, 2011

      Wow, I'm so thankful our dog hasn't done that yet!!! He's a chewer, but he's only 18 lb., so he sticks to destroying small toys and socks, etc. That sounds like a major wall repair job!

      Reply
  5. crittersandcrayons Nov 29, 2011

    I think it so cool that you run this kind of mom-blog- so unorthodox and handy! Grrrrrl power! haha!

    Reply
    1. Sarah Nov 30, 2011

      Ha ha - I figured this post would come in handy for moms of boys! Although I guess I should have specified - my husband was the one who did all the work. I just took the pictures! He was impressed, though, when he came home from work one day and I had fixed the bathtub faucet myself!

      Reply
  6. Taneil Lawton Nov 30, 2011

    To match the texture of your wall more closely you need to splatter the texture on and the "knock it down" using the putty knife. It is hard to splatter the texture on without a special hand sprayer that you buy at a hardware store. It is called "Knock Down Texture" and they make a little hand pump that will spray the texture on for you. It shouldn't be too expensive and might be handy to have for the next hole. Though it is always hard to get them to blend in real well. Good job, too bad Gil wasn't around to help, but it looks like you guys figured it out.

    Reply
  7. Brooke @Let Kids Create Dec 1, 2011

    Ha, don't need boys to get a hole in the wall. We have a lovely hole in our bedroom from slamming the door open into the wall. Dreading the fix, so we leave the hole - I guess it's a good reminder to be more gentle while running around the house like crazy women.

    Reply
  8. sweetb2006 Jul 2, 2012

    Texture may not have matched exact But, if he would of used more putty & then did a light sanding(didn't read details, so not sure he sanded it) I think it would have looked much better. My first time, I also skimped on the putt & didn't sand... I know better now. :)

    Reply
  9. Steph Sep 9, 2012

    A trick we found for matching the texture is to use a paint roller! Worked great for us! :-)

    Reply
  10. unknown Sep 10, 2012

    sherwin-williams sells knock down texture that would have matched. even tho it says ceilings you can still use it on the walls :)

    Reply
  11. jenn Feb 21, 2013

    It happened to me too. We did the same thing you did but after the first application of the spackle and paint we spackeled and painted again.
    After it dried we bought a stainless steel door knob protector thingy for the wall. Its the type you sometimes see in hospitals and we screwed it into the piece of wood that we had put in place. Since then we havent had any problems. Also the guy at home depot told us about recessed wall protectors for door knobs too.

    Reply
  12. Alicia Aug 6, 2014

    Hi, I just found your blog. Love it. I'm fixing doorknob hokes and other mishaps that should've been fixed sooner. I'm preparing to sell my home, so, no more putting this off. I have textured ("knock down" ) walls, so, wasn't 100% sure how to do this. I repaired the holes just fine with patches, tape and joint compound, but, you're right about matching the texture -- this is tricky. I tried the glove technique. This worked great, but, not the right effect. Then I purchased a sea sponge. Again, this looked great, but, still not an exact match. Finally, I used a scrubbing brush. You know, the kind you use on floors and tubs. This was the answer. Here's how it works: (Note:: Do this as your final "decorative" coating after your wall is completely patched up, sanded and cleaned). Mix up some "mud" (consistency of panccake batter), dip the tip of brush in the mix. Then, pull the bristles back and release. What you want to do is "flick" the joint compound onto the wall. This is the same result you get with the expensive knock-down sprayers and those pre-mixed cans. After it dries, very lightly sand or press the area with a puddy knife, wipe clean and paint. Voila. Sorry I don't have a photo, but, give it a try. I think you'll be pleased with the results.

    Reply
  13. Charles Y. Wellman Apr 17, 2018

    Make cuts toward the center to easily remove the drywall. If you need help with drywall repair in your home, this post guides you through repairing large and small drywall holes in your walls. Consult and experts try to call https://www.ok-handyman.com/lawton/

    Reply
  14. Gerty Gift May 14, 2018

    I liked how simple you made the process seem. My husband really wants to learn how to do these kinds of things so that we don't have to ask someone to do it for us. I think that, for now, we'll have someone fix the hole our dog created in our wall, but we might look into this later.

    Reply
  15. Elaine T. Keller May 25, 2018

    Clean hole with the blade knife and cut at an angle so the exterior of the hole is bigger than the interior.

    Reply
  16. Duncan Lance Oct 17, 2018

    It really can help to know how to repair small holes in drywall, so it is great to have an article like this go over it. Of course, before you do the repair project you'll want to make sure that you have all of your supplies such as extra drywall. Once you have that then you can begin working on fixing up the hole and getting the project taken care of.

    Reply

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