Before and After : Wall Stencil

We have been living in the same house for almost 8 years now. 8 whole years! It seems like we just moved in a year ago. Ever since the first day we moved in we had been planning on painting the interior of the house. We have painted our bedroom twice, and just about every other room in the house. We even did our boys room in lime green!
And now, 8 years after we talked about painting the living room I finally made it happen!
Here is the terrible before picture. In all of it’s messy pre-construction glory! Yowzah!

We picked out a pretty khaki grey called Stonington from Valspar. It is light enough to keep our room from looking like a cave since we don’t have a lot of natural light in this room, and it adds richness and warmth. It’s the perfect mix of grey with a little bit of tan.


And, as you can see, I couldn’t leave it with just a boring coat of paint. I dreamed of damask stencils and I found a way to make it possible. I fell in love with this design here. All of the stencils in this shop are just as spectacular! Can you just imagine the possibilities?  It takes some time but it is TOTALLY worth it!

This was about the time that Mason caught a nasty virus and ended up sick with bronchiolitis for a week, putting a quick halt to my stenciling. The latter stayed up in my house for about 3 weeks while I nursed sick kids back to health. (Simon and Ryan got sick too.) And I slowly finished the wall, one print at a time.  The stencils where dry rolled on in a color that is 2-3 shades lighter than the wall. It was almost white. I dry rolled it on lightly for a distressed look. After letting that coat dry I accented it with gold stencil paint applied with a large pouncing brush. Both of which I picked up at Hobby Lobby.

in the meantime, Mason would watch baby Einstein or practice his new skill of rolling around to get where he wanted to go. He is such a good baby!

And then one day I actually finished! I love how it turned out! It looks just like I pictured it in my head.

The reason it took so long is that I had to roll on each stencil, wait for it to dry, then apply the gold accents. Then I could move the stencil to the next position.

The gold adds texture and a touch of glamour. With a house full of males it is nice to add a little feminine touch.
Did you like my new lamps? I just picked the pair up at Goodwill. I had to fight an old lady for them. Ok, we didn’t really fight but she had her eye on them and I snagged them when she wasn’t looking and then she gave me the evil eye. It was worth it.
If you are thinking about stenciling your walls, just do it! It added so much life to my living room!