I must put it straight – I have never in my life painted walls. Neither have I painted furniture. Nor anything else – but for school art lessons.
But! Being a Feng-Shui amateur, my fingers have been itchy for a paint job for over a year now. No luck there.
Now, when I have finally got my Love’s approval for our master closet makeover (!), I knew I wanted Damask/Moroccan stencils on the walls!
My search brought me to My Perfect Stencil:
The paint color was also an easy pick, as I had a clear vision in my mind – dark silver it was:
One trip to Home Depot provided for all the necessities for the job:
– drop cloth; – painter’s tape (Blue Scotch, of course!); – painting kit (roller, brush, tray); and rubber gloves.
Per advice of the Wise and Experienced, I started from an inconspicuous place, above the door.
The Most Valuable advice on stenciling: use LESS paint on the roller. The less-er the better! Trust me – I am the first-timer, everything that can go wrong, could have gone wrong for me then! So, use less paint on the roller.
Another really helpful trick I found out myself is that if you screwed up a piece really bad – wipe it off with a wet cloth IMMEDIATELY. No trace left 🙂
To begin with, I drew a line on the wall along the ceiling to position the first stencil row accurately. And it went all easy and (almost) flawless.
After this first row was finished and I spent enough time admiring the work – I proceeded to the easiest wall, the one without corners or shelves.
I have to be honest, before I started (and even after the first top row) I had no idea how to position the stencils to create the straight lines and smooth look. But you know what? It came naturally. Just find a reference point to your liking – and stencil on! Because a stencil is actually a rectangular piece of plastic with straight edges, it’s really easy to create a straight picture 🙂
Here you go: The end product of the first-time-stencil-er 🙂
A tip: use a roller instead of a brush. A roller is faster, easier and much less messy than a brush. I tried both and made my choice.
By the way, stenciling has a great advantage over painting the entire wall – it dries almost immediately!! So, by the time you washed the tools after completing the last stencil – you can hang pictures or shelves on that wall!
Oh, and one last tip I found somewhere on the web – cover your brushes/rollers with a plastic bag and put it in the fridge if you need to stop for the night. It saves SOOOO much time on washing!!
Autumn in July 