Monday, February 21, 2011 We fell in love with stencils this weekend!
Yep. That's us. Totally pooped. This weekend was very much dedicated to our bedroom. Joey really took over getting the stencil complete while I did chores and errands. As I sat down to post this, I noticed a week has gone by since we last updated all you pretty people. The guilt kinda got to me and then a remembered a phone call I had with a fellow blogger/best friend just a few days ago. We are working women (and she's super preggo!) and have very high demands on our time. Any given week, I dedicate 55+ hours to a client. Not to mention I run a fashion company. Even though it's seasonal, we do a lot of work during the Winter to prepare for the Spring. And I like to cook, so homemade meals are very important to me on a nightly basis. You get the point. I can go on and on about how busy we are. The truth is, if there isn't anything worthy to blog about when it comes to the house, I am not going to waste anyone's time with "filler" posts. There, I said it. Please don't hate me for it. :)
So onto some exciting progress! I mentioned a bit ago we were pondering paint for the master bedroom. We finally nailed down a paint combo and got to work. Cumulus Cloud, meet Winters Day.
Let's back up and bit here. We decided to do a stencil on one wall and then do a solid color on the remaing three walls. When we wake up in the morning, the stenciled wall is the wall which we will face. Perfect! We did a lot of paint combo testing before we were sold on this combo. Both colors are care of the Martha Stewart Collection we found at Home Depot. I think we went through about 20 samples before we fell in love. Now, I am not going to lie. We were scared to death to stencil grey on the wall being we never stenciled anything in our lives. But we did it slow and followed the directions perfectly - and it was so worth it.
We bought the Rabat Allover Large Stencil over at Cutting Edge Stencils along with some tools. I am going to highly recommend them! If you wind up with one of their awesome and super reasonably priced stencils, I suggest grabbing a clip-on stencil level, as we found it very useful, even with our sloped walls.
So after you read your instructions, and have tools in hand, take a deep breathe! You can do it! We started slow and took three days to complete because we wanted to make sure everything was super dry before we went on to the next step.
This is the hardest part. Well, not physically hard, but lining up your stencil and making sure it's level will set the tone for the rest of your work. This is not the time to rush. Make sure it's positioned perfectly before you start to paint! Ready?...
Exhale. See, not so bad. Now simply line up your stencil before you repeat. Make sure all your work is dry before you do this. It was pretty time consuming, like I said, but as the pattern grows on the wall, it becomes very rewarding!
Joey kinda had his own Michelangelo thing going on. :) It was all pretty consistent until we got to a plug. Joey sorta free-handed over the plug to keep the pattern going. Other than that, we didn't really reach any major bumps.
Needless to say, we are now stencil fans! Brainstorming where else we can use stencils, color combos, and maybe even stenciling a floor, or furniture...ahhh! Too excited about stencils. Yea, we are nerdy. We can't wait to show you what this wall looks like when complete....
Have you stenciled something? Know of an awesome trick to stare? Please let us know!
Reader Comments (19)
Holy. Cow. This is even better than the scallop pattern you shared. You guys are SO ambitious; it's really crisp looking too - messiness is my biggest fear about attempting stenciling.
WOW! That is fantastic. I love the stenciling you've done. You guys are REALLY, REALLY GOOD!
I have got to come up and see your house. I heard great things about it from Julie and I've been following your blog.
It'll have to wait until Julie's baby is born though and even then I think Julie won't let me go out of town until Buttercup is 21 just in case she needs her momma.
Amazing. Keep up the good work.
I love the stenciled wall. It looks amazing!
And yes, we ARE busy women! <3
Haha! Just read the comment from my Mamma. She's so funny. I suppose I'll let her go away for awhile after Buttercup is born.
Absolutely stunning! Great job to both yourself and Joey. You 2 must have the patience of saints. This house is going to be sensational, as if its not already. <3 Darlene
@emily - i think im dreaming of scallop stencil in the hallway to the guestrooms. how fun would that be?! poor joey...a lot of work ahead of him :)
@Jo - you are so sweet! thanks so much for popping by! maybe the three of you can come visit some day. wouldn't that be sweet!? xo
@Julie - hehe can't help but think we can have it all/do it all. love you!
@Darlene thanks so much love! i am really excited about this wall, silly as it may seem, it's changed the whole vide of the room :) xo
Oooh, very inspiring! I LOVE this!
How long did it take you to complete this wall?
@bungalowbliss hi there! it took 1 day to prime + dry. 1 day to paint + dry. 2 days to stencil + dry. totally worth the long weekend worth of work! thanks for stopping by!
In a more recent post I had no idea this was a stencil... wow! You guys did an amazing job!
@kathy thanks! we love the stencil so much! so worth the $30something bucks vs $100's in wallpaper!
This is what home ownership is all about, you buy a place, and make it your own. This room is the first I've seen of your reno, I'm anxious to see more! It's beautiful!
@carol thanks so much! it's so much fun to wake up to!
amazzzzzing im going to do folding doors in my bedroom and i really love this stencil thanks so much for sharing
Hi- these are the colors I am looking for! Could you tell me what colors you used from the Matha Stewart Collection?
@julie, yes! i need t go look but i will email it to you. :)
@julie Cumulus Cloud &t Winters Day.