I finally stenciled a wall! With this gorgeous pattern in our half bathroom...
I painted the big stripes in our upstairs guest bathroom, and that was super cool, but I've always admired big geometric or graphic patterns on walls, particularly allover patterns that mimic wallpaper. What a fantastic DIY to do, right?!
So I got a chance to review a stencil from Royal Design Studio, and it took me literally several weeks to pick one out because there are so many cool ones (I was looking mostly at the Allover Damask Stencils,
Allover Moroccan Stencils, and Allover Modern Stencils). I finally picked the Fabric Damask Stencil, and they also sent me some of their really nice thick stencil creme paint in Pearl Oyster and a stippling brush.
I'd been wanting to stencil the upper walls in our half bath since painting them a super dark color last fall. Kinda inspired by the dramatic wallpaper in this pin. Our walls are textured with an orange peel finish, and I had tried to stencil them a couple times with absolutely no success. I used some medium-sized leaf-ey stencils from the Martha brand from Michael's. They did NOT work. The paint got all under the edges and when I peeled it away, looked awful. I was also using craft paint and a foam sponge thing, clearly not right for the walls. So it was great that Royal Design Studio sent me a stencil, creme paint, and a brush so I could really do it right!!
So here it is in use, on the last pattern I stenciled... taped up with some painter's tape for extra security but also stuck on with spray adhesive.
The "stippling" method with the brush worked great. Almost no paint got under the stencil edges. Seriously fab.
The spray adhesive was another nightmare--I got this at JoAnn a while back and after the first usage it was pretty gunky. Tip: never buy the value size. You can't guarantee it'll work the second time you use it!!! Yuck!!!
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| Never again. Buy the smaller ones. |
I obviously had some issues on the corners. Next time I do this, I will do some MATH and space out the stencil patterns evenly so I don't have awkward space at the bottom and top where I didn't want to bend the stencil and add a third pattern repeat in each row. And I'll space it so I don't have to curve the stencil on the corners like I did below--on the left there it worked okay because I used some heavy masking tape aligned vertically to tape off the wall and keep the paint off the white wall, but on the other corner (right) it was chaos, trying to keep the stencil folded 90 degrees and stuck to both walls. It's a heavy latex stencil so it bends but it doesn't want to stay bent!
But all in all, I think the whole effect is pretty great and I'm really happy with it!
One problem I am having is photographing this tricky little room! It doesn't get any natural light, and the mounted light above the sink is soooo bright. Any photographers have tips for this??
Update: Photo by Nakalan!
Wallpaper in the dining room! Just what it needed
DIY vintage-look art for the office
Colorful living room update and refresh for spring!