We’re having a pretty low-key holiday weekend over here. Doing a few household repairs, thinking about upcoming birthday parties, cleaning the garage, playing Barbies, wondering how it is that our little girls are growing up so fast and trying to figure out how to freeze time.
So…since you’re probably not so interested in the repair job on the dishwasher or why our well randomly stops pumping water up to the house…I thought I’d share some stenciling that I did in Addie’s room. Did I ever tell you how we painted her room before she was born and we didn’t know if we were having a boy or a girl? That would have been all fine and normal if we’d gone with a nice gender neutral room, but I really wanted to do a pink and dark brown room. We *knew* we would probably have a third little princess so we just planned as such. You know me, I’ve got to have a plan. So I wanted to experiment with some sort of wall treatment and I came across Cutting Edge Stencils. Sure, I thought! That’s perfect – I’ll slave away at stenciling a whole wall in pink and brown and certainly I won’t mind if we have a boy and I have to paint over the whole thing. (Good thing that all worked out, huh?)
So anyway, I gave it a try. I used this stencil here, and do you know what? It really wasn’t too difficult and I think the finished effect is incredible. We divided the wall and painted off the bottom 2/3 a nice rich brown. We painted the top 1/3 (and the rest of the room) a soft pink. Painting one damask patch at a time, I simply taped up the stencil, aligning the pattern with the previous patch, and rolled a nice wet roller over it. It was a pretty quick process, except that I waited between each patch for the previous one to dry. But I just did a quick patch, then carried on doing other things in the house, then came back every 30 min. or so over the course of the day. As I went along, I discovered two important things that resulted in the cleanest stenciled image. 1. Quicker is better. and 2. More paint on the roller is better. That is, if I tried to use less paint on the roller and apply a lot of pressure to fill in the whole stencil, I found that the paint smudged and bled under the stencil. But, if I got the roller really wet with paint and then just went over the stencil with ONE stroke, the finished product was much cleaner. The differences in the stenciling across the wall blend together smoothly and I felt no need to touch up any of the more smudged images. In fact, I think the variation adds character to the wall. We finished with a strip of chair rail, a shelf, and very small crown molding around the room.
Unfortunately, the original ceiling color would not work with the new paint and we gambled on painting it the same pink as the rest of the room. Not so good. The room kind of has this pink glow to it, but I just can’t get motivated to spend a day painting a ceiling – not my idea of a good time, so poor Addie has to live in the pink glow. I’ll get around to that ceiling soon, I’m sure of it…
Sandra {sawdust and paper scraps} says
Wow, the stenciled wall is beautiful. What a cute nursery!
leemeandthegirls says
THat is so beautiful!
Mama.Mommy.Mom. says
My daughter’s room is pink and green. It definitely has a ‘glow’ to it. I love the look you achieved with the stencil. Stenciling is one thing I’ve never tried.
Its So Very Cheri says
That looks FABULOUS. Don’t they have the BEST stencils and such an array of styles and designs?
Thanks for linking up to the DIY contest.
Have a relaxing weekend.
Cheri
Sixty-Fifth Avenue says
Stef, this is awesome! Looks like a page out of PBK. I can’t believe you painted it without knowing for sure…you must of had a really good feeling you were having another girl, good thing! Great little tutorial.
Enjoy the day!
Londen
Michelle says
It is gorgeous! I wish I would have done it in Avery’s room, she started with a pink and chocolate theme as well.
Maridith @ Strictly Homemade says
SO CUTE!! We are having our second girl in Feb and I would love to do something with brown and pink. I love the stencil. I am not sure if I am brave enought to do this but it sure is inspiring!!
Julia says
What a beautiful room! You should be a designer:).
~Julia
Mandy's Creative Corner says
How precious! I never though stenciling a damask could be so easy! Thanks for the inspiration =)
Dropping by from Just Something I Whipped Up Mondays
JoJo says
Love the walls!! so pretty!
Madame Samm says
Yep., Jodi was right..you inspire…And sew much sew, I have added you to my blog list and I am a new follower…sew there! lol
blessings madame samm
Lily Riani says
i always wanted to learn this but the stuff over here doesnt seems to hv that much choice. arghh…. you are so lucky
Cheech says
Thanks for the sweet comment Stef! Your blog is so great and I really enjoy checking in!
Super cute room! You’re so creative!
Kate@TwentySixToLife says
Gorgeous!
Megan {Honey We're Home} says
I love the result, just fantastic! The pink and brown is so great together. I’m going to check out those stencils now:)
shopannies says
the walls turned out so pretty
Stacie says
That is Beautiful!! Great job!!
michelle says
Hi got here from girl creative. had to laugh because we just painted our daughter’s room pink. I painted the ceiling too, and promptly repainted it a less pink, more neutral color. it was glow-in-the dark. Love the stencils!
Shari says
This is incredible. I can’t believe it’s a stencil.
Adena (aka cre82learn) says
This is absolutely stunning!! I don’t know that I would have the patience to finish it. All of the walls in my house are textured and I hate it; makes it very difficult to do anything like this.
The DIY Show Off says
Stunning! I love the pink paired with black and white. The stenciled wall is just so glamorous! Great job
Roeshel
freckled laundry says
This is beautiful, Stef! That stencil is gorgeous and the colors are so chic. Who knew stencils could be so cool? I have Cutting Edge Stencil’s bird cage that I can’t wait to use!
Hugs,
Jami