Stenciled Wall Tutorial

As you  know I am working on a bedroom makeover for my little guy .  If you missed my post Sneak Peak at My Little Man's Room go check it out.   It will give you a little preview of where this room is headed.  Let's just say I love midcentury lines mixed with traditional elements in a child's room, so this room is going to have a good mixture of both.  


This room has to double not only as my littlest man's room, but when company comes for a visit I will be kicking him out to stay in his big brother's lower bunk bed.  Can you relate?   I don't want to the room to scream kid, I want it to be a place where my mom, or my hubby's parents feel comfortable when they come for a visit.    Most of the choices I have made for this room are age neutral, in fact, maybe a little too age neutral; so I decided to jazz his space up a little by stenciling a wall.  I wanted the look of wall paper, but it was not in my budget, so a stencil was the prefect option.

I chose this owl stencil from Hobby Lobby.  It was going to  cost me a whole $2.99, but Hobby Lobby has a 40% off coupon on line, so it was less than $2.00 with taxes!  Talk about a lot of bang for the buck! 

Hobby Lobby's Owl Stencil

Other materials I needed for this project included paint, painters tape, canvas drop cloth, foam roller, and spray adhesive.   Many of these items I already had from other projects.  But I did need to buy paint.  I bought a quart of paint, but I could have gotten away with one of those small paint samples.  My total costs for this project was less than $20, which was great because as you know I set a low budget of $1000 for this whole room.

Here are the steps I took to stencil my son's wall.

1.  Start with a freshly painted wall.  I taped off the edges of my wall.  I tend to get a little sloppy at times, and this painter's tape helped cut down on my whoops moments.  Spay the back of the stencil with spray adhesive.  I found mine at Lowes.  Make sure to buy the least tacky option, you want to be able to reposition the stencil.  You do not want it to stick permanently!  Yikes, that would be a mess!  Only spray your stencil once, it will stay sticky enough to get you through your whole project.  If you spray it twice (like I did) then you will leave glue residue all over your wall.  It is a mess.  I started my pattern in the top left corner.  I wanted to make sure that if I got off course, it would be hidden by the curtain panels on the other side of the room. 

2.  Stencil, Repeat, Repeat, Repeat....

I do want to share a few tips with you.  All of the directions I have read about stenciling say to make sure you to rid your paint brush/roller of excess paint.  I can't emphasis this step enough.  Above is a picture of what the correct amount of paint rolled on should look like, can you see that the paint is not saturated on the wall, in fact, in some areas i thought that I had not gotten enough paint on the wall, and that somehow these owls would look gray and not black when I pulled the stencil off.  These owls turned out to have the best lines.  Here is a tip, if you are painting in black paint then you will have black owls, never gray, black is black, just like any other color you paint will be that color.   When I started the project this is how much paint I put on the roller....and then the wall.

Can you see the difference?

  When you put this much paint on the wall, it will bleed through, under the stencil.  When I finally got the process down, I found myself only reloading my roller every 20 moves, so that is 80 owls before I dipped my roller back in the paint.  When reloading, I only dipped the roller in the paint on one side, then I rolled off the excess paint. (Do not roll the roller around in the paint like you would when painting a wall.  You will have way too much paint on your roller.)

I was able to eyeball my line of owls.  I laid out my row following the ceiling line and then I lined my stencil underneath and continued to paint.  I did find my owls to be a little off, but the curtains at the other end of the room hide this imperfection.  If you don't have curtains to hide your mistake, I would recommend using a level and a piece of chalk to draw lines on your wall.  Once you are finished stenciling, just wipe the chalk off.  (A lot easier than using a pencil and going back and erasing all your lines).

 

I finished the body of the wall, and then I did my edges.  If you want this to look like wallpaper, then you need to stencil up into the corners.  This will mean that some of the design will not be complete.  That is okay, and gives it the wall paper look.  Simply tape off the corner, and the wall you do not want to stencil so there is no over painting.  Then stick your stencil on the wall with it folding onto the other wall.  Paint carefully. 

At the bottom of this picture is the baseboard.  Do you see how the last row of owls are missing their feet?  It is all part of making the wall look like wallpaper. 

3. Touch up...My final step is touching up all of my mistakes.  No matter how hard I tried, at times I over-painted the stencil.  For this step, just take a small hard bristled brush ( I used a small stencil brush, hmmm, little ironic don't you think) dab a small amount of your base wall color on the brush and paint over your mistake.  It is kind of like putting concealer on over a blemish.  I repeated this process a couple times!  :)



This stenciling project may seem overwhelming, but it was really quite simple, and is not as time consuming as you may think.  I had about 4 hours into this entire project, and less than $20.  Not bad for such a large statement wall.  I can't wait to show you his finshed room.  I have a few more projects, and then, the reveal.  Next week I am going to show you how to sew a bolster pillow for the bed. (You know the kind that run the width of the bed)  I am seeing them everywhere these days, and it costs a fortune to have one custom made.  I  made mine for less than $25!  Including the down pillow form.  Here is a little preview.

Do you see a hint of owls in the background?  I really can't wait to show you this finished room!

Rebekah

I linked this project up to a few parties.  Check out our where we party page.

http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/

PLAYROOM REVEAL!!

I guess I've been promising this post for some time now.  The problem is I can NOT get this room finished.  Now, it is "finished"... but it's not perfect.  Is any room ever going to be perfect?  I have decided the answer is NO!  So, I'm going to show you this room in its current state.  Looking at these before pictures I can see we've come a very long way so the few things here and there that I want to add and change will just have to become future blog posts!

This room started as a weekend project with an accent wall, new furniture arrangement, and a few pillows.  3 months later it had grown into new floors, painting all the trim and doors, curtains, etc. etc. etc. The main wall color is Pale Smoke and trim and cabinet color is Super White both by Benjamin Moore. My husband saw the slight transformation and got on board!  He decided we needed new floors and enlisted his buddies to come help lay them one weekend.  BUT... before we could do that... all the trim and doors were wood tone so we decided they needed to be white!  It was one of the best choices we made and the worst task to complete!

Early morning painting... no fun! 

The payoff was totally worth it!  Goodbye 1981! 

The cabinets were all taken apart, sanded, primed, painted, and then got a coat of poly.  Then, about a month later all the cabinets were taken apart {again}, sanded{again},  primed{again},  painted {again}, and then got a coat of poly {again}.  I wasn't aware that oil based polyurethane would turn my white cabinets the color of a banana!  Sad and frustrating, but lesson learned.  While we had them down anyway we chose a brighter white (Super White by Ben Moore) and also painted the hinges in Krylon Fusion Metallic Shimmer.  The ACRYLIC top coat was tinted to the exact white as  the cabinet color to avoid the banana debacle from happening again.

The Hubs doing the sanding as I go right behind him priming with the big can of Kilz you see in the forground.

Benjamin Moore's Super White with newly painted hinges.

Two rounds of sanding, priming, painting,and sealing ended up

being totally worth it in the end! Look at the difference

in color from the above picture where we are sanding!!



Once all the painting was done and the floors were down it was just a matter of rearranging furniture and accessorizing.   I made two curtain panels to hide the giant holes on either side of the fire place.  I am assuming they were put there to store wood.  We use them to store toys, fabric, craft supplies, etc.  If you remember from the original post I wanted sliding barn doors to cover them.  Sliding doors are impossible because the actual fireplace sticks out about 4 inches past the wall.  There may be barn style doors in my future but they will be on hinges.  For now, these panels do the trick of hiding the junk. 

Good storage but U-G-L-Y!

The accent fabric here is "Spot On" by Waverly and the rest of the panel is a white cotton duck.  They are hanging thru a rod pocket on $3 tension rods from Big Lots.   Notice in the before picture the cubby on the left is perfect size to hold fabric bolts!

The wet bar cabinets received that same paint treatment as the other cabinets (both times) and you can read about the fridge transformation here.  The mirror was a gift from my sweet mom she picked out just for this spot.  I love how much light it reflects back into the room!  It is from Pier 1.

What were they thinking in the 80's?!?

Perfect place to clean dirty hands or mix a drink.  It's inevitable that people end up down here whether we are hosting a kids party or an adult party.

In came a new rug.  The one I was coveting from Dash and Albert!  We got rid of the worlds heaviest TV and sold the TV cabinet (it was where the gallery wall is now).  The new TV was a Christmas present from my sweet in-laws.  The couch was reoriented which completely opened up the room.  The gallery wall went up and that was enough for me to call the room "finished enough for now."

Gallery wall and custom lamp shade how-to found here.  I left plenty of room to add to it over the years.

I made this pillow from an old bird seed sack.  Love it!

Before

Inspiration Room from Traditional Home Magazine

The overall cost of this room was very inexpensive considering the amount of work that went in. We purchased the floors from Lowes on Black Friday for right at $700 ($1/sq. ft). We recruited friends to help install (cost... 1 case of beer for the boys :-). We spend about $200 on paint for the baseboards, doors, walls, and cabinets and still have some leftover. The Dash and Albert rug was 30% off so I got it for less that $250 including shipping which is pretty good for an awesome 8x10 rug. I owned most all the frames and just made them cohesive with paint. Mirror was a gift. Lamp $5 from Goodwill and refurbished. Waveryly fabric was $12.99/yd and I bought 2 yds for all the pillows, curtain trim, and bench cover. Other odds and ends maybe $50. Total cost came in under $1300. I'm OK with it because it feels like a brand new space that we want to spend time in rather than a dark, cold, dingy basement.

I wanted this room to have a playful feel because that is where we plan on keeping most of the toys (now I just need to work on my scaredy cat son so he'll go down there alone...). But, when we have big parties at our house this is the room where a lot of people end up so I needed it to also function that way. I hope you enjoy checking it out! If you have a suggestion for the TV wall PLEASE pass it on!!

 

Kandi

Mudroom Reveal

My mud room is finally finished!

                           



I love the way it turned out.  If you remember my budget for this room was $200; and I have to confess that I went a little over budget by about $50.  However, I was able to reuse many of the items in this room, which really helped me stay close to budget.  If you look closely, you will see that I kept the rug, one of the benches, a chair, coat rack, mirror, art, and a few other accessories. 

I don't think I have shared my before pictures with you.  So here they are.....plain white walls, miss matched furniture and lots of shoes!

Look at all that stuff!  I need storage!

View from the door, looking into my house

I wish this picture was not so blurry, but do you remember the buffet I purchase for $100?

My Mud Room Now.....

Wow! What a difference!

I placed a console and a chair on the left wall.  Now I have a place to set mail, keys and lets face it everything else. I am so glad I moved this chair next to the table.  I can now sit down and take off my shoes without walking across the room.  Baskets and vintage suitcases hold shoes and out of season items.  My large antique crock is the perfect place for my kids to throw their scarves and hats.  I find that if I make storage visible and easy for my kids they are more likely to put their things away than leave them on the floor!

View toward the door

Remember that $100 buffet?  It is amazing what a little paint can do!  Look at all that hidden storage!  This piece of furniture holds shoes, art supplies, hats, mittens, and so much more.  By far this was my biggest expense.  I spent $150 on this project.  (buffet + paint)

Coat hooks, bench and buffet (Sorry about the sun)

Chalk Heart Garland (I could not help myself, I had to do a little Valentine's Day decorating)
Hearts from Micheals, painted with chalkboard paint, wired together.   Idea from Pinterest.

Chalk painted hearts a + r = j & c

My hubby and my initials = our sons' initials....

I had the antique coat hooks and bench....but I need extra storage.  We are a shoeless home and tripping over my kids shoes every time I walk through this room drives me crazy!  So I needed a place for the kids to put their shoes.  These metal baskets from TJ Maxx are perfect and each child has their own bin. (metal baskets $8 each) I also bought a vintage sap pale for $6!  It is perfect for wet umbrellas.

So I have to confess I did not have time to make pillows for the bench, so I took a couple of my valentine's pillows home from Boudoir.  These are going back, and they are for sale....(but they do look pretty cute here on my bench.....)

I made this little cafe curtain from a single vintage pillow case. 

Look at the detail!  Beautiful!

a new place for mail

a little chalk paint can go a long way

Isn't it amazing what a little bit of paint, and rearranging the furniture can do for a room!  Before I was embarrassed to have people enter my house through my mud room.  Now I look for excuses to walk into this space.  I love it,  I know that if may not be as fancy as some of the mudrooms I see on Pinterest, but for a $250 budget, it is a space that makes me proud.  To recap; my $250 was spent on the buffet, wall paint (Behr Wheat Bread in an eggshell finish), and various accessories.  I hope this mudroom reveal encourages you to go out and make your spaces beautiful;  just because you don't have a large budget does not mean you can't make changes to your home that make you proud. 

Rebekah

p.s. We were in Hendersonville this past weekend, and I think Kandi is almost ready to reveal her family room. I can't wait to see the pictures.  You are not going to believe the transformation!

Here is where we link up!