Dude, stencils are no joke. But I did it! I bit the bullet and ordered the stencil that John and I have been pining after for the past month (mentioned here a few weeks back). We loved the idea of adding some subtle tone on tone detailing above the chair rail in our office (we didn’t want anything with too much contrast since it’ll compete with the dark teal built-ins and the fun curtains in the nearby dining room). So we settled on a softer gray tone with a tiny pop of color (leftover grellow paint from the adjoining kitchen). At 54 honking dollars it was hardly a drop in the bucket, but let me tell you, this stencil is hardcore. First of all, it’s made of super durable plastic, so I don’t have to worry that it will rip or crease while I’m taping it, untaping it, and bending it manhandling it to get into the corner crevices (I’m pretty sure I would have trashed a thinner stencil after one wall, just because it’s kind of a more rigorous application process than I expected). And let’s just talk about how big it is. It’s over two feet tall and almost two feet wide, so it helps to make things go faster since you don’t have to reposition it every three seconds like you would with something smaller.
And yes, this is quite an evil face I’m making. No idea why. I remember saying something like “make sure I don’t look naked” when John snapped this, but had no idea I was giving off such an I’m-the-female-Hannibal-Lecter vibe.
Another way that I’m rationalizing my purchase is that we only spent $6.30 on cabinets for the built-ins and $27 to build a 13 foot counter, so maybe it’s time we splurged in the office. Haha. I also figure any type of wallpaper (even the cheap stuff at Lowe’s and Home Depot) would be way more than $54 for the entire room above the chair rail, so there ya go.
I’ve actually never done a giant repeating stencil like this on a wall (we did stencil the floor of our first house’s sunroom) so here’s where I’ll get to the keeping it real part: stenciling is haaard. I’m not gonna lie, my arms were cramping after about an hour and it took four and a half solid hours (from 8pm to twelve thirty in the morning) just to almost finish one wall (out of the four that I want to do). But in the spirit of sharing things real-time as we go, I couldn’t wait to share the in-progress madness. Here’s a close up:
And here’s one side of the wall that I almost completed (I still have to do those last 6″ above the chair rail). Oh but ignore the weird dark and light vertical shadows on the wall (couldn’t wait for the lighting to be better – too impatient and excited to share, haha).
As for my method, here’s a little breakdown of what seemed to work for me:
1. I prepped the room by clearing it and tossing a drop cloth over the desk so we wouldn’t get paint splatters on it.
2. I used Martha Stewart Craft Stencil Adhesive Spray from Michael’s (purchased with a 40% coupon of course) to spray the back of the stencil before taping it up on the wall with painters tape. This helped the middle parts of the stencil stay close to the wall and not bend out for a nice crisp line. I probably repositioned the stencil two or three times before re-spraying it (when I noticed it holding less firmly to the wall I just took it down and sprayed it and taped it back up for the next application). Oh and you’ll want to use a large piece of cardboard or drop cloth to spray the back of your stencil so you don’t get stick stuff all over the floor).
3. As for where to start, John held the stencil up in the top middle of the wall so we could center the pattern and work out from there in all directions.
4. I also used delicate surface frog tape for holding the stencil up at the top, bottom, and sides (we already had it on hand and I didn’t want to tear off fresh paint as I moved it around the room so it seemed to do the trick).
5. I used small foam craft brushes (also from Michael’s). They were basically dowels with flat foam tips.
6. As for how I loaded my little foam brushes, I just dipped them in the paint (more details on the paint colors later) and dabbed the brush around the lip of the plate to remove excess before tapping it against the wall to apply the stencil.
7. I always tapped the wall at a right angle with a not-to-gloppy foam brush for a nice clean edge (so the paint wouldn’t slip or drip behind the stencil and smear around).
8. If I feared that a little bit of paint somehow got behind the stencil, before repositioning it on the wall for the next application I would lay it on my drop cloth on the floor (face down) and wipe the back with a dry folded paper towel to remove the excess paint. Then I would respray my stencil adhesive and stick it back on the wall for the next application.
9. The way that the stencil is applied means that there are repeats. So you position it right over the last 3″ that you previously stenciled and work your way across the wall that way. I didn’t wait for the paint to dry before moving the stencil (that would have probably taken five million hours), so I just took my time applying the paint so nothing got behind the stencil and then matched up the stencil carefully for the repeat and continued on. Since there was no wet paint on the back of the stencil, it was fine to be pressed against the 3″ of wall that was already done, and it didn’t look any different than the non-overlapped part. I wonder if the application of paint was so thin that it was drying really quickly so it didn’t make a difference…
10. The corners were the hardest part. To get the stencil to lay flat against the wall in the corner so you can cram your brush into the small little stencil openings was sort of impossible to get perfect. But I did learn that this stencil is extreeeeemely forgiving (probably because it’s a more organic pattern than a regularly spaced geometric one, which would probably make any inconsistencies a lot more obvious). So when I didn’t quite get deep into all the corners, once it dried it was somehow not obvious at all (a stenciling miracle?). Of course I’m not exactly a corner expert because I’ve only attempted one of them, so as I go around the rest of the room maybe I’ll have more tips.
After about three hours I was here on the first wall:
And after 4.5 hours I had one wall almost all done (sorry for the terrible picture, I was sort of losing it at this point).
So although I wasn’t completely done with that wall, I decided that 12:31 am meant it was time to put the foam brush down and throw in the towel for the night. And do some finger stretching (I seriously had cramped up hand-claws).
Oh and as for the colors, here you go:
- Walls: Moonshine by Benjamin Moore (color matched to Olympic No-VOC paint in a satin finish)
- Main stencil color: I just asked the paint guys to give me a half-tint of the wall color (also color matched to Olympic no-VOC paint in a satin finish). This means they just add half as much tint to the white base as the original formula calls for, so you end up with a half-as-intense tone-on-tone effect.
- Grellow stencil flower accent color: Leftover wall paint from the kitchen, which is Sesame by Benjamin Moore (color matched to Olympic no-VOC paint in semi-gloss). You actually can’t tell the difference in finish unless the light hits it just right from the side and the grellow sort of looks iridescent, which is actually awesome. Yay for happy accidents.
I also made a video to hopefully help demonstrate the foam brush prepping and actual stenciling part of the process (including a quick demo on corner stenciling):
So that’s where I am with the stencil. One wall-above-the-chair-rail almost done, three more to go. I’m planning to tackle another 4+ hours tonight and hopefully can fit in one more session this week (my goal is to be done by Thursday or Friday, soreness permitting). It’s definitely one of those projects that you just need to force yourself to complete as fast as possible – because as soon as you start all you want is to get to the point where you can let out a huge sigh and say “so glad that’s over!”
But so far I have to admit that it’s totally worth the trouble. We’re loving the effect (it’s sort of like subtle modern wallpaper, not too in your face but not too tame and unnoticeable either). It’s sort of the perfect amount of “ooh, look at that” without being too competey and chaotic with the adjoined dining room. And John and I both have said the following sentence about ten times so far: “the pop of color totally makes the entire thing.” So might I recommend a splash of grellow (or any color you love actually) to take something that’s gray on gray to the next (still-kinda-subtle) level?
Ok, now I have to hear from you guys. Have you ever stenciled something, be it an accent wall, piece of furniture, or entire room? Do you have any secrets you’d like to share? How long did it take? Is four and a half hours for the top half of one 13 foot wall (with a big ol’ window in the middle) about right? I might just be moving at a turtle-like pace. Haha. Just too nervous about getting paint all down the back of my stencil if I go any faster. Anyway, hopefully I’ll be back with finished pictures (and maybe a bulging right bicept from dabbing away) by Thursday or Friday. Until then, picture me standing on a chair at 11pm wearing my inside out painting clothes and listening to shows on Hulu (I tried radio, but somehow hearing Community and Parks & Rec play in the background kept my spirits up a little more).
Psst- I’m over on BabyCenter chatting about my favorite kids clothing store and how I save money when it comes to shopping for Clara’s clothes & shoes. Did I mention that I snagged 47 cent shoes on my latest mission? Excited doesn’t even begin to describe it. Check it out here.
Abby says
Love it!!
Heather says
OMG. I love this so much! I’ve wanted to stencil my dining room for a while now, but decided against it because we have textured walls. After this, though, I may have to do it anyway. It looks awesome!
alg says
I’ll say what I said to John when he did all that tamping for your back patio…
I SO feel your pain!!!
(Remember I stenciled that big faux-rug on my porch?)
http://rentalhouserules.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/porch-stencil-reveal/
Your arms, back & hands must be THROBBING.
But yeah, I think with stencils it’s best to soldier on & get’er done. An ounce of determination is worth a pound of griping, right?
No? Nobody says that but me?
Anyhoo — It’ll be worth the pain. It looks fabulicious already.
Way to go, stencil sister!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, love that porch project!
xo,
s
Lisa J. says
I think the wall looks AMAZING!! All the effort was definitely worth it; from the look of one wall, I think the final will be fantastic. I’ve never stenciled, but I think you have inspired me. We’ve been considering what to put in our (smaller) home office, and I think some stenciling would be just the right touch. Thanks!
Elise says
I stenciled the accent wall in my oldest daughter’s big girl room while I was pregnant with girl #2. I did metallic silver paint over gray, which turned out cool, although in retrospect, I maybe should have done a higher contrast color palate. The effect is sort of subtle for the 30+ hours it took me to complete the project. I actually used a small foam roller, because I found that while it did get more paint behind the stencil, it was so much faster than the pouncers and when you have an all-over pattern, you don’t really notice small imperfections. As far as corners go, it was my least favorite part of the process, but instead of trying to force the stencil way into the corner, I just went as close as I easily could and then free-handed the rest. It wasn’t perfect, but again, you don’t notice it when you are looking at the finished product. So I guess my biggest piece of advice would be, don’t sweat the little imperfections, because you really don’t see them once the whole thing is done!
Kay says
It looks so lovely! And can I just say — in your new blog year resolutions, you set a goal of being less “verbose” (I think you called it) in your posts, but I hope you don’t follow through! I love the details and the digressions that you guys seem to crank out so effortlessly in your posts. They are always a pleasure to read . . . and I frequently scroll w/ the hopes that they are longer :) Just thought I’d let you know :)
alex says
Haha. Your hands remind me of the episode of FRIENDS where Monica gets the pac-man arcade game and chandler plays it so much he gets a claw hand from the joystick. Haha. Priceless.
the stencil looks beautiful and its so much easier to maintain than wallpaper. Lovely.
Chelsea & Kyle says
That stencil pattern is amazing and I love the subtle color variation between the wall color and the stencil color but WOW with adding the grellow to it! That was straight up genius. Love it!
karen says
say whaaaat!…your a lean, mean stenciling machine!!
it looks so awesome. can’t wait to see it all done.
Melanie says
I have been wanting to do this forever but have been too nervous to try it. Your wall looks fantastic and definitely makes me want to try it even more! I like your pop of color idea.
Question for you: Why didn’t you use a roller? When I’ve read about doing stencils on other’s blogs I’ve seen both the sponge and the roller but most go for the roller. Wanted your perspective on why you went the way you did.
Oh and you know who I thought you looked like in the first picture? Natalie Portman in The Black Swan – gorgeous but a bit scary :)
YoungHouseLove says
I just wanted to follow the directions from the stencil company (they recommended the method we followed). I just wanted it to look really crisp and it doesn’t need any touch ups this way if you go nice and slow. Also since I was using two colors it seemed easier since I couldn’t really roll the grellow part. Hope that makes sense! As for being a poor man’s Natalie Portman, I’ve heard that a lot today. Hilarious!
xo,
s
Lauren L says
HANDS ONLY JOHN! hahaha (re: video)
marci lambert says
this. is. so. awesome!
Devon @ Green House, Good Life says
Ohmigosh that’s gorgeous!
Marcy says
Okay, now I’m sold. Thanks for doing this DIY project. I’ve been meaning to tackle this in a much smaller part of my home. ALSO- I saw the cover of Snuggle Puppy I think in the background of the picture where you are showing us the sponges being held by your lovely bean- it’s a favoritie in our house too!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yeah, that one falls into the “memorized word-for-word” category in our house. OOOOOOOH!
-John
joyjoy says
Oh my goodness, you had me at “tiny pop of color”. The tone on tone with the grellow looks so good! I can’t wait to see how the whole room looks once you’re finished.
Amanda Deerr says
Love this! Are your walls completely flat or do they have some sort of texture? Ours are textured and I’m not sure that a stencil will work. My hands hurt just thinking about tackling this project! :)
YoungHouseLove says
Ours a pretty much flat. There’s the occasional little bump, but it’s definitely not textured. My guess is that doing it on a textured wall is possible, but you may have trouble getting crisp edges.
-John
Mandy says
It’s gourgeus! I LOVE it!!!! <3
Julie says
That looks great! I did a stencil in my bedroom.. We made our stencil using poster board. We drew the design on, cut it out with scissors, and then just spray painted the design on. It worked really well, but you can’t spray too much at a time, or you will get drips and you can only use one color. But it’s been six years, and it still looks brand new!
Kelsey says
Oh. My. Gawd…
BEAUTIFUL!
I am inspired, Sherry. Once we have a home to paint the walls in (darn apartment), I am for sure stenciling.
I love that it looks much more modern than wallpaper.
Congratulations – I can’t wait to see the finished product!
Mary McG says
my sister-in-law and I did that in my mother-in-law’s dinning room. I love the look of slightly diffrent/lighter shade for the stencil. I wonder if it would work with a red-ish color?
Reenie says
WOW….that’s beautiful. You have a lot of patience!!
KathyG says
Awesome! It will be SO worth it in the long run.
Question, did you find that you got more efficient as your learning curve improved? Some things seem to speed up exponentially, while others just a bit, so I was curious.
YoungHouseLove says
Yup, I got a little better but it still took a while. I think the first one was waaaay too long, but then I got into a groove and it went a little faster. But sadly not a lot faster.
xo,
s
Ashlene M says
Looks beautiful, going to do a nice stencil in our basement office.
By the way, happy birthday Burger!
Jenny D. says
Sherry, that looks “biutiful” :) I could never imagined that stencil-painting the walls is such a physically challenging and time-consuming job. The results seem so fun and effortless! I haven’t stenciled anything myself, but I do have this ongoing project in my head. I think I had a vision or a dream once and still think about it. The idea is: painting my white bookshelf in bright yellow and applying black stencil to it. For some reason I keep thinking that using a lace fabric as a stencil could work… kinda like here: http://pinterest.com/pin/194709231/ Have you ever tried using lace as a stencil? Do you think this might work somehow?…
YoungHouseLove says
That’s beyond gorgeous!! The only way I could see it working would be with spray paint though. And a very very fine mist. I fear that the lines of lace are so thin that a brush would just get under the tiny hair-thin parts of lace and it won’t look crisp. Maybe try it for a bulletin board (so you can spray it outside?).
xo
s
Denise says
Sherry, have you tried using a small foam roller? I’ve used one many times on large stencilling projects, it’s quick and it works really well. The wall looks amazing!
YoungHouseLove says
I was too chicken! Haha. The site where we got the stencil recommended the dab at a 90 degree angle thing so I just stuck with that! Especially since I had two colors to dab on.
xo,
s
Frances Bentley says
AMAZING!! I’m so inspired. Now what wall can I stencil?? Hmmmm…..
Kim @ Yellow Brick Home says
Oh, man, SO awesome! I am dying to see how the whole room turns out!
We’ve never stenciled, but we DID go all old fashioned and roll up some wallpaper – talk about a big change and a WOW effect!
http://www.yellowbrickhome.com/2010/03/30/adventures-in-wallpaper-reveal/
Now, maybe next time we might try something along the lines of a HUGE stencil. Very inspirational – thank you!
YoungHouseLove says
Wow, what a cool wallpaper pattern! And we love how it’s just a little pop there in the hallway.
-John
Paola says
wow, this looks amazing! awesome job!!
Tia says
All of your patience and hard work = totally paying off.
Dab on, girl! Dab on!
Ann says
Girl, you have some serious stencil skills and the patience of a saint! Love, love, love it!! It looks like wallpaper and the colors are purr-fect.
Amanda Wells says
What a task! It looks incredible!! Kudos to you!
http://www.amandadovewells.com/?p=1156
Julie says
Wow, I LOVE it! Totally worth the $50 investment, and then some. I have been fantasizing all morning about where I can do a stencil in my house now!
Rose says
I fear stenciling large areas for the exact reasons you have mentioned above. But the result on your walls is AMAZING. The style of pattern and the choice of colors and the precise application make it seem like opulent wallpaper! Well done!
Summer says
ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS! yes, i’m shouting it. i can’t believe how beautiful this is. i want to run out and get some paint and do every wall in my house. can’t wait to see it all done!
Cici says
are your walls smooth, and/or your thoughts on stencil over texture? Not the heavy troweled kind, but the usual in my area: a bit flattened, and looks great with any glazing, etc.
Love your results: elegant and understated but such fun!
fyi: you might try squeezing a small ball and stretching arms and hands when you “break” to move the stencil–to reduce the soreness :) uh-oh: my inner yoga teacher is showing.
YoungHouseLove says
Our walls are smooth, but I think I’ve seen stencils on slightly textured walls (nothing too bumpy, but it can probably work over something slight). And thanks for the squeezing exercise! It helps!
xo,
s
Emily says
I’m way to scared to use a stencil on my own wall (I’d pretty much be guaranteed to royally screw it up somehow), but that looks awesome!
Wrenaria says
Your evil face is looking a little more like a sultry come-hither face to me. :p
I saw the video appear on YouTube last night and have been looking forward to this post ever since. Lovely so far! Good work!
Bridget says
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this! I’m already trying to figure out where I’m going to do this in my apartment…maybe the long entry hall? The living room? The WHOLE darn place?!?
kate says
Oh, Sherry!! That might be the most beautiful thing y’all have done yet! It looks in-credible. Absolutely fantastic job. I am awe-struck.
Do I spy a Sandra Boynton book in Clara’s hand? Those are the absolute best! My Caroline can’t get enough. If you don’t have it, I highly recommend the “Doggies” counting book.
Still in awe. Wow. It looks amazing!!!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yeah, Clara loves Doggies too. That and Moo Baa La La La. She’s starting to help us read them, so in Doggies she goes “AA-OOOOO” when we get to 9 doggies and she loves saying “La La La” and “No, no” to the pigs.
-John
Holly says
That looks sooo awesome (and so do you!). I’m thinking of doing an accent wall in our bedroom with a chevron pattern in the same color (with semi gloss and flat or something similar) and I’m thinking of hand taping. I will probably want to kill myself (both for soreness and time consumption).
MP says
LOVE! I love Victorian-type things, and this is such a great blend of modern and Victorian-ish. Moderian?
sommer ledbetter says
Absolutely love the stencil! Do you think the stencil would have the same affect if the groom was a light grayish color?
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, I think so!
xo,
s
Jackie K. says
This comment has nothing to do with the stencil (which is AWESOME, by the way).
I remember you guys saying you don’t think you’re famous, but “Akinator” says differently. He was able to guess Sherry with only two tries! Check it out!!
http://www.akinator.mobi/us
(WARNING: This is a highly addictive way to waste time.)
YoungHouseLove says
Too funny! And yes, it’s totally addictive. And in an interesting turn of events, it seems to know just Sherry and not me (although I keep getting tripped up on questions like “Is your character a member of your family” which always leads it to guess I’m thinking of my dad).
-John
Ashley says
This is amazing! I’m thinking I’ll do something like this for a baby girl’s nursery and use a pop of hot pink. That makes me happy to think about! So would you say that this is not as therapeutic as Clara’s closet stencil?
YoungHouseLove says
Haha – nope! I wish! It was all the aligning that made it harder than freehanding it.
xo,
s
Whitney Mayer says
It looks amazing!!!! But it looks like way too much of a pain in the but for me!
Erin says
This looks fantastic! I don’t know if I’d have the courage to tackle such a big project but I know where to go for instruction if I decide to try. Thanks!
Mandy says
First time commenting on your blog, but I just had to say WOW! It looks amazing! I’m so impressed and inspired!
Jill says
I love this stencil….I had actually Pinned it a few weeks ago. It’s perfect for your office, Sherry. I’m a stenciler from way back in the 80’s, and yes, it is a pain. The look you get from it is the reward that makes it worth it. I’ve been admiring these modern stencils that look like wall paper, but I’m afraid I don’t have the energy for it anymore. I will live vicariously through you! Go Girl!!!
Megan says
This might just be the best project you’ve ever done. I can’t wait to see the whole room from father away! So cool. I bet that stencil company loves you guys right about now. I’m off to go find one for myself…
Katie V says
So having just finished a stencil project, there were two things I did that made it less of a pain, though may not work for your current project –
1. I used a small foam roller instead of a stencil brush. It was easier to keep the paint from getting dripped/dabbed under the stencil and it was faster to do. That being said, it may not be possible since you want two colors.
2. I left a tiny bit of gap at the top and bottom of my walls so I wouldn’t have to do a partial repeat. Then I only had to contend with corners (which I let feather/fade out a little rather than try to get perfect detail in each corner)
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the tips Katie!
xo,
s