After weeks of tender, loving care to details, I can proudly say I am finished with a major component to our master bedroom…a featured, stenciled wall. If you had told me several months ago that I would take this much care (and pride) to spread out this project for this long, I would have laughed in your face. Between a graduation and a wedding back in Maryland, and a trip to Spain, this project has had its unfair share of delays. My husband and I were beginning to think that dropcloths, ladders, and painting gear were permanent residents of our bedroom.
If you didn’t know, I’ve been working closely with Heather from The Decor Fix on my master bedroom. I was one of her first Decor Coaching clients and, guys, she is a GENIUS at deciphering what your home décor style is. I’d be totally lost without her! When she asked me “How do you feel about a stenciled wall?” I nearly did backflips because I so wanted an excuse to stencil. Also, I wanted to show my husband that it wasn’t just one of my goofy ideas and that a professional was recommending I do this. I love the look of wallpaper but, the price of wallpaper and the indescribable amount of work required to remove it if we were ever done with it? Count me out.
Royal Design Studio was kind enough to give me their Chez Sheik Moroccan wall stencil for my master bedroom makeover. Trust me, it was NOT easy to choose one because all of their stencils are gorgeous. Since my room dimensions are 17′ x 19′, I needed the Pro size as the walls are huge. It came professionally packaged and rolled around thick cardboard for protection. But before we get to the good stuff, let’s take a trip down memory lane and revisit this room when we first moved in, shall we?
Sorry to all the beige-lovers out there, but this beige made me all sorts of angry. This color was on all walls of our house when we bought it and it was the first thing I wanted to get rid of in this room.
After a coat of Sherwin Williams’ Agreeable Grey and some artwork from Minted. It was such a breath of fresh air. This was right before we got our new pillow-top mattress, which increased the height of the bed, which in turn dwarfed the headboard and also made my duvet too small. The price you pay for comfort :)
Voilà! What a transformation! The room now feels complete, well at least for now, as I also want to buy an 8×10 area rug. The wishlist never ends, am I right? Heather suggested I go with a watered down version of Agreeable Gray, but I fell in love with this pin and I just had to go a tad lighter. I used Simple White by Sherwin Williams (all my paints are color matched at Lowe’s…they have the colors in their system!) I have no regrets and am loving this wall! I also happened to find a nearly identical duvet at Bed Bath Beyond by Wamsutta that fit properly (110″ width vs the 104″ that didn’t even reach the bottom of the mattress).
If you think that you wouldn’t be able to do a stencil wall, trust me when I tell you, you CAN! It took me roughly 6 weeks, beginning to end, but working in small sections (with a level at all times!) the big project was doable. Yes, there will be some imperfections…but you will be the only one to know where to look. I’m showing you an up-close and personal peek at the hardest part of this project: the very edge. I had to bend the stencil a bit, and use a stencil brush, to get right into the corners. Some paint smudged, but you can’t tell at all when you’re looking at the wall as a whole. Promise.
Tools you’ll need to stencil a wall:
- Chez Sheik Moroccan Stencil
- foam roller kit
- stencil adhesive (for the little round areas that don’t lay flat against the wall and for the wall corners)
- frog tape
- 1 quart of paint for stencil
- paper towels
- cotton swabs (to help remove excess paint if it accidentally bleeds under the stencil
- Motsenbocker’s Lift Off latex paint remover spray
Since I had such a large area to stencil, I opted to use a foam roller brush (labeled for cabinet doors), but if you have a small work area, I suggest using stencil brushes for better control instead. Royal Design Studio Stencils has helpful tips on their site on how to stencil a wall.
Personally, using a level to ensure that I wouldn’t end up with a slanted stencil proved to be the most helpful. Making sure that I got most of the paint off the roller and onto the paper towel was the second most important thing. When I did a trial run on poster board (I highly recommend it!) I thought more paint = less time. WRONG. This guarantees that paint will seep under the stencil and leave you with a pathetic excuse of a stencil job. Trust me, you’ll go through several sheets of paper towels but it’s totally worth it.
Lastly, you will need to clean your stencil periodically, especially if you have a large wall to work with like I did. I found that the stencil had accumulated a lot of paint, especially around the intricate edges, and my stenciling began to take on a “fuzzy” look. I contacted Royal Design Studio and they told me about Motsenbocker’s Lift Off. This stuff truly was a lifesaver. I heavily sprayed the stencil on both sides, and left it in my bathtub for a few minutes (plugged to keep the paint removing liquid working) paint-side down. I scrubbed for a few minutes with a non-scratch scouring pad and the stencil was clean as a whistle. I probably cleaned the stencils about four times throughout the project. I could have cleaned it more often for better results, but I just wanted to plow through and get as much of it done in the little spare time I have at night before bed. I plan on also using it with metallic paint in my master closet…but…one project at a time.
I love my Royal Design Studio stencil so much that one lucky reader of La La Lisette will win a $50 shopping credit towards their stencil, plus free shipping within the contiguous United States! Many of their stencils are less than $50, so get excited! Enter in the Rafflecopter below. Good luck, and happy decorating!
