House of Jen

 

So last week I was finally able to finish the painting of the living room.  Sadly its kinda hard to tell there is a difference in wall color, but trust me its much brighter.  I'm still in need a few new pieces and some more accents, but at least it's no longer a mess and starting to look much better. And considering what I have to work with I'm satisfied for the moment.

 

The wall color is Four Winds by Valspar and the stencil is Gauntlet Grey by Sherman Williams.

 

So in case you forget what the before looked like...

 

It was were all my random pieces of furniture went to die basically.  The room is one of the largest rooms of the house and just never had its own identity.

 

 

So back to the after.  I ended up painting the valance (more about that in a later post)  It was very well made and covered in silk so I hated to get rid of it.

 

The sofa is the same as the before.  There was a slipcover over the green.  However, as so many things do, it has made a comeback so with all the pattern in the wall I like the sofa minus the cover.  Beside the sofa has to be at least 40 years old and is better made than 90% of what is on the market today. When we move again I want to put in our bedroom at the foot of the bed so I will most likely have another slipcover made from Calico Corners again. They made the first slipcover and it fit great, and help up amazing considering it was 25 years old.

 

 

It looks great from the front entry and dining room.

 

 

I had to take a picture at night with the glow of the lamps.

 

Okay, so I shared earlier in the week about my latest project, the living room fretwork stencil from Sarah M Dorsey Designs.  If you have never checked out her blog, I'd suggest to stop by and take a look around.  Now this stencil was massive, in regards to a single pattern stencil.  Now this my no means was my first rodeo when it comes to stenciling, as I've learned a few things over my projects.  1. stenciling is like childbirth, you forget the negative until it's too late. 2. Don't use paint and primer in one.  It just makes it that much harder to remove the stencil.  (now the best paint to remove was from my first project, if you remember I used a metallic paint so it was a thinner paint and was much better to clean off the stencil)

 

Here is the new stencil taped to the wall, you can really see the size, I believe the finished design is 32 by 32.  I used a stencil level when I did the bathroom ceiling, but yet to use one for a wall.  And here is why, if your ceiling is not level then the gap at the top will not be off as compared to ceiling and to me look funny, so I "assume" the ceiling, or in this case the picture rail is level, and use the concept of visual level.  If your stencil is always flush with the ceiling than it will look level in relationship to the ceiling.  It's always seemed to work for me.

 

Here is one of my, hindsight is 20/20 pieces of advice, I would cover most of the plastic of the stencil with painters tape and just leave about an inch or less around the cut off of the stencil.  Why you ask?  Simple - it makes it that much faster and easier to clean.  Just peel the tape.

 

I used a 4 inch foam roller.  Now with a 4 inch wide roller there, at least for me, was a lot of the plastic of the stencil that was covered with paint, and then dried and cover, and dried and covered, you got the point. So there was a point when I was litterly using paint stripper to get the paint off the stencil, it was bad.  (by the way, not sure if I would recommend paint stripper, I sent my husband into the hardware store to get turpentine, and he came out with paint stripper, as it said on the can it removed dried paint, he tried.  I did not leave on the stripper for very long as I was not sure if it would eat away at the plastic.  I was safe, but I can't trust the method)

 

The key to a good stencil line, the less paint the better.  I know what is what everyone says but its true.  I like to use a full size paint tray and roll off the extra along the groves.  

Roll your thin coat and remove...

 

Most important thing to remember, it will not be perfect up close, but A. no one will notice but you and B. from a distance it will look perfect

 

Little side track...

The picture below is from Sarah M Dorsey's blog.  If you notice her stencil has more of a depth in the shades of color.  She used a stencil brush.  You can use about an inch in diameter stencil brush to complete the process as well.  This can allow for a less uniform look as opposed to a roller.  I also can only believe that it is much more time consuming as well. Don't get me wrong the look is very cool.  And I bet the stencil is easier to clean.

 

Back to the living room.  Now the stencil is made to over lap in order to keep the pattern on track, as you can see from the picture below.  This makes repositioning the stencil very fast and easy.

When you move to the next full pattern there is still an overlap. As for the same process for top and bottom. From there you just keep moving along the wall.  I would go one of the left, then one on the right as to let the most recent section dry.

So after you keep going, and going, and going your almost done!  In the photo above you can see the little white lines in the pattern when the stencil had to have supports to hold the pattern together.  I choose to fill them in by hand after it was completed.  I used a 1 inch foam brush (the kind the pointed knife edge) it was the perfect width to fill in the lines.

Ta-Da!  It's done!  Awesome if I do say so my self!

Never mind all of the junk all over the room, its a little bit of a hot mess right now.  Hopefully sooner than later, I can post the finished redo. That would just mean I have to finish it, which I HOPE to by the end of the weekend...or next.