Stenciling

For bedrooms, whenever possible, I like to place the bed facing the doorway to make a good first impression when entering since the bed is the most prominent and probably beautiful piece in the room.  I love the idea of a wallpapered focal wall but good quality wallpapers are expensive, plus we have never put on wallpaper, so I didn’t want to risk messing it up.  
Came plan B – Stenciling.  We have never stenciled neither (heck, everything about this house and experience is a first time for us!) but at least with stenciling we can just paint it over if we messed up.  Also one big stencil costs less than $100 and I have the flexibility of choosing my own colors. 

Took me a while to choose the pattern because I had so many questions!

-do I want it be modern, damask or flowery?

-What colors and one color or a few? There was nothing in the room yet, so there was nothing to grow from. 

 -Should I fork over more money for a bigger stencil (more repeats) so the job would get done faster?

-What tools do I need?

After some researching, I finally settled on a large Turkish inspired damask pattern called Jaipur Damask from Stencil Ease. 
The base paint color is Classic Berry from Behr; i chose metallic gold and silver paints from Martha Stewart line (also at Home Depot) for the damask.

I ended up using 1 can of silver and 1.5 cans of gold. 

Even though each corner of the stencil had a tiny triangle for you to align as you move, i used a level for the first column just to be sure and also once in a while for self checking. I used painter's tape and two small rollers (one for each color) and paper towels to blot off the excess paint.  Make sure you dont have alot of paint on the roller for clearner lines and also faster trying time.  The paint dried pretty fast, so i only had to wait less than a minute between each applications. 

I started from one end of the wall and move by columns.  I did a rough measurement to see where did i want to begin the stencil.  I wanted it to look like wallpaper so i needed the pattern to competely cover the wall. Hoever, it was too hard to bend the stencil over the molder (the tape would not stay put!), so after one try, I decided to leave the last row for last.

since the bottom would be blockedy the bed and dressers, i left some blanks.

(sorry for the low quality photos,  i  usually do these tasks in the evening after work, so the light isn't the best)

At the end, even with the hubby helping, it was impossible to bend the stencil to do the top roll, we decided it was best to cut up the stencil.

When we were done,  I used a fine artist's brush to fix some minor paint seepages and also to get rid of all the marker triangles.

see the lighter paint? it will dry darker o match.

Final result! i love how the metallic simmers from different angles. I am really happy with the result and everyone thinks it's wallpaper!

Say Hi to Mango!

oh and those chairs are one of my best scores ever!, $175 for the pair, almost brand new!

alot of stuff in this room i got from Ebay/Craigslist such as the $25 dresser and FREE table.