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Hang a picture here, one there and yet another one over there. Makes the room look great, until you decide to change the location of the pictures and you are left with small holes in the wall caused from nails and hangers. Or maybe the hole is slightly larger than a nail hole and needs to be repaired without having to replace drywall and re-painting. Can it be done? Sure, just use these tips for DIY drywall repair.

Small Hole Repair

Toothpaste is your go-to DIY repair product for small nail holes in both smooth and rough textured walls. Use white toothpaste (not gel) and dab in into the hole until it’s full. Smooth with fingertip to blend in with a smooth wall or leave as-is to blend in with a rough texture. Allow toothpaste to dry then cover with a dab of wall paint to make the DIY drywall repair invisible.

Large Hole Repair

Someone get mad and punch a hole in the wall? Clear away any drywall debris from the hole and cover hole with drywall tape, white or tan duct (duck) tape. Apply a thin coat of drywall putty over tape and smooth it down with a putty knife, being sure to cover tape completely but not thickly. If wall is textured, place putty knife blade flat against the wall putty and lift up all across the puttied area to create little peaks. Allow drywall putty to dry, lightly sand with fine grain sand paper to achieve the texture needed to blend in with the rest of the wall, then paint.

Even Larger Hole

We won’t speculate on how that large hole was made in the drywall, but we will give you tips for fixing the hole in the wall. Take a box knife and cut away the broken pieces and remove debris. Cut in straight lines and aim to make a simple shaped hole like a square or rectangle. Measure cleaned-up hole then measure, mark and cut a new piece of drywall 1/8 inch smaller all around. Fit the new piece of drywall into the hole. It should fit snuggly and can be tapped gently into place. Whittle down to size any errant corners or sides with the box knife. Apply drywall or duct tape around all sides, then apply a thin layer of drywall putty over the tape. Smooth out and let dry, then paint to match the rest of the wall. If the wall is textured, apply wall putty over the entire new piece of drywall and create texture with a putty knife as described under ‘large hole repair’. Let putty then apply a coat of wall paint.

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