How to Paint a Stenciled Wall

As I said before, I tested a small area in the farthest corner of the bedroom. It's a good thing I did. As you can see in the below picture, the paint begins to overlap looking all "yucky".

Also I made the mistake of using a graphite pencil. Instead, use a color pencil.

To get a smooth look, I painted one continuous "squiggle" and then went back and painted the other "squiggle". Yes, I'm full of techincal terms today!

So that when the stencil met from tip to tip, it look like one continuous intertwined pattern. The color looks a little darker in certain angles.

The above photo is the most accurate in color. I love how it looks! It's too bad my other photos make the wall look bumble bee yellow!

Then I just held the brush gently and keeping my wrist straight, I followed the stencil around. I painted 2 coats of the white metallic paint. It dried very quickly so I did the 2nd coat right away.

There you have it. Are you going to attemp this yourself?

Picture Frame Moulding - Complete

Scratch this one off the To-Do list!

Picture Frame Moulding II

After I drew the picture frame boxes on the dining room walls, I remeasured each length and made a neat list on a piece of paper. Not only am I double checking my numbers before cutting, but it helps the hubs to cut pieces quickly and efficiently.

I labeled each wall by letter to keep it simple stupid and then made a coordinating list of the length and how many of each we needed. ie. Wall "A": (six) 22" pieces and (six) 20" pieces. We did it this way, so we could complete one whole frame before moving on. We could have just cut everything at once, but from experience it just gets confusing and mistakes happen easily.

Do yourself a favor and get a miter saw. Borrow it. Rent it. Get it on Craig's list. Be sure to use safety googles and ear plugs. It's loud!

As the hubs cut 4 finished pieces, I'd go tape them to the wall by lining them up to the lines I sketched earlier and then checking it with a level.

Time to nail. A nail gun and actuator makes life so much easier! Start with the top piece first. Check that the neighboring piece will line up nicely with it (they tend to bow inward). Put pressure on it and then nail. This is why the taping is so conveninent. It holds things in place.

4 finished picture frame mouldings! Only 14 more to go!

Next time: Spackling, painting, and caulking.

20x30 Canvas for my Apartment

Through Social Living, I bought this 20x30 for $60 (originally $130). I love this picture taken by Scott Robert Lim with the bridge in the background and thought it would make an awesome piece of wall art in my apartment.

Picture Frame Moulding I

Here's a project that has been on my to-do list for a long time...maybe 3 years! It was about time I wrapped up the dining room by completing this project. I'm excited!

At 4" from each edge, I began drawing frames with my level. I used a pencil. (The lines didn't show up in the picture so I went over them in Paint.)

There were some odd corners that I wasn't sure about, but here's what I decided to do with that. After I was done, I made a neat list of all the lengths of wood trim so we could get ready for cutting.

Let's Talk Floors

After I painted the walls and moulding in the new guest room, it was time to do something about the floors. We toss different ideas around and weren't really sure if we wanted to make the effort to sand them down and re-stain them.

We rolled the area rug up which came with the house and found this. Most of it vacuumed up. Using a damp rag, we wiped the floor down and cleaned any dust.

We went cheap and instead of renting a sander from Home Depot or Lowe's, we just used what we had - a hand sander and a band saw with 40, 80, and 120 grit sand paper.

Using the band saw with the 40 grit sand paper, Keith worked on areas that seem to need the most work before moving towards the rest of the floor.

After sanding a small area (3x3), stop and vacuum the saw dust up with a shop vac. Pretty soon we could see it was totally worth sanding the floors. We read a couple of different tutorials. It's important that you're just sanding off the previous varnish and smoothing the surface out. There's only so much you can sand before you compromise the strength of the floor.

How to Stencil a Wall

Before I started, I got my supplies ready. Here I have 2 bottles of paint: one in champagne and one in white. I also bought a pack of new brushes. I ended up using the 2nd one from the left for the whole project.

AC Moore had a huge assortment of colors! I love it!

Place the stencil on the wall. I started by eye-ballin' it. Then I checked it with a level. I used a tan colored color pencil to sketch my pattern, so that it would blend in better with the wall. Make a little mark on the left or right edge of the card stock to keep the stencil aligned in the vertical direction.

So it looks like this. Here, I made the mistake of using a mechanical pencil and the lead was way too dark and smeared the wall. So I went back with a damp paper towel and wiped the pencil away. It still left an outline so I didn't have to redraw it. Lesson learned. Use color pencil.

See how the lead pencil shows through. Then I tested the paint out by painting in the farthest lower corner of the room (away from the front door). It's a good thing I did since it turns out that I didn't like the champagne (too gold once it dried). Also, I found that keeping the brush strokes even was important. Don't overlap too often.

Painting next....

How to make a wall stencil

So I know you're all wondering how I did this?

First, I started by googling images of wall patterns and did little sketches on a piece of paper to get a feel for how fluid the stencil would be when I'm ready to paint. In other words, the easier it was to sketch and move my hand around, the easier it would be to paint too. When I was ready, I started by sketching one side on a piece of card stock and then folded it over, so that the stencil would be symmetrical.

Intentionally, I sketched the stencil a little shy of 5/8" wide because I knew my paint brush was 5/8" wide. While folded, cut the stencil out with an xacto knife. This is just the trial run so it doesn't matter if it's not perfect.

After I cut it out, I retraced it onto a new piece of card stock to use as my wall stencil. Make sure the top and bottom points on the stencil are exactly in the center and equal in width because you're going to put tip to bottom each time you trace the stencil onto the wall.

Carefully cut it out with the X-acto knife. I left 2 "notches" to hold the center from falling out. I should mention that it's important that when you retraced the stencil onto the new piece of card stock, be sure it's level to the top edge of the card stock. You can draw some lines from the corners of the stencil to help you line up the stencil when you're sketching it onto the wall. I left the additional 6" of card stock at the bottom of the stencil to help me use it as leverage when I'm moving the stencil around on the wall. Also, I can lean on it so that I don't smudge the wall.

How to trace the stencil onto the wall next...

What I have been up to...

If you're wondering why it's been so quiet, it's because I have been working on this. I was a little nervous about it first, but then it turned out fabulous! It only took me 6 hours and some creativity. Tutorial to come!

Painting Day II

I finished painting the new guest room today. I love the color! I keep walking back to the room and stare at it for a minute and then walk out. I can't help it. The color and finish is perfect.

Here is the finished room. So purty! I can't wait to change that light fixture.

First things first. Before painting, I had to sand down the patches of spackle I used to fill in holes and imperfections. Instead of using sand paper I use a damp rag if the patches are minor.

See all the crunchy spackle? Smooth it all out with clean, damp rug by rubbing in a circular motion until the patch is flush with the wall.

Viola! The best part about this is no sanding! No sanding equals no dust! For larger gobs of spackle where I have to use sanding paper, I'll hold the sander with a damp rug over or under it to catch the dust. It's just one way to reduce some of the dust.

After I cleaned up the mess Guinness made, I was able to go back to painting. ;)

The previous night, I painted all around the trim, ceiling and in the corners of the walls; a method called 'cutting in'. Give yourself ample room to come back with the paint roller without bumping any of the trim. Also, if you haven't done so already, after you sand down the spackle you have to prime over it. The paint I bought has primer in it, so I just gave the spot a coat.

Next up: Next weekend, we'll put crown moulding and clean the floors. It's always been in our plans, but we were just taking one room at a time. The house already has really pretty moulding and all it needs is some crown moulding to tie it all together. In the mean time, I'll shop for a new light fixture and research how to refinish hardwood floors.

Painting Day

Today, I started prepping and painting the new guest bedroom. I was looking for something light and airy with sophistication. I've been loving the gray color combinations lately, so I went with gray walls. This color is 'Silver Screen' by Behr. I bought the paint+primer combination and in an eggshell finish. But before we start, there was a lot of prepping I had to do.

I always recommend bringing the paint card home and putting it up against your moulding to see what it looks like in the lighting of your room. I have made one too many mistakes, so take your time when choosing your colors. Finishes have a lot to do with the end results as well.

But before we begin painting, there was a lot of prep in the room. First, vacuum thoroughly and dust with a damp rag. Wipe all the ledges down and any areas that are clearly dirty (near light switch, door knob) Then, I went around the room and spackeled any holes (from hanging pictures) or imperfections on the walls.

Old paint on the floor. I wanted to take my time with this room to get it right.

Like many old homes, our ceilings are not entirely flat with straight edges, so I still have to paint it free hand with an angled 2.5" brush. By doing it freehand, I can create the illusion of a straight edge.

My boys sleeping while I work.

ANITA curtains at Ikea

I'm famous!

Inspiration Fabric Shopping

I had a hard time narrowing down the style of the room and since I have to work with the yellow walls, I thought I would look for drapery/home decor fabric first and work around that. I love the gray and yellow combinations, but I don't want the overall scheme of the room to be "too yellow".

Modern Affair at Spool.

Optic Blossom on Etsy by Amy Butler.

Tonic Living

Media Room Ideas II

My head has been swirling with ideas. I have been looking up inspiration for the rooms and researching the things projects I want to do. I'm so excited!

A sofa that can act as a day bed would be perfect for overnight guests.

We priced out media consoles and they are just too expensive for our purposes, so we're going to try to build out own.

We're working a few hours each night to clean out the rooms. We're boxing, bagging and trashing. If we can't use it, it's finding a new home.

Simultaneously, we've been working on the other room. It's coming a long. I'm excited to see what these rooms look like without a large chunk of furniture in the center.

For this room, we're going to build a day bed like this. I had one when I was a teen and it's really easy to build. I'm really looking forward to this DIY. I just need to research how to paint raw wood.

Back Yard Privacy Screen

I ran across a new blog today called Aubrey and Lindsay. This couple did something that I just found completely BRILLIANT! They have a chain link fence which they built privacy screens and planted plants to camouflage the chain link fence. The result is a beautiful retreat.

See their tutorial here. We definitely want to pursue this project this spring/summer. We've always talked about what we should do with THAT side of the yard.

Media Room Ideas

One thing our house lacks that we wish we had was a family room or den in addition to the living room. It would be good to have another room where we could put our feet up, so I am thinking about turning our guest bedroom into a media room/office/guest bedroom. The room has to be multi-functional - The room would serve as a TV room, a guest bedroom, and a place for storage of crafts and clothing.

Here is the room currently: I love it and so do our guests, but it's most unoccupied 90% of the time with the exception that this is where I store my clothing and crafts. I hope turning this room into a media room will give us more usable space.

The bed takes up too much room, so we are going to replace it with a pull out sofa or day bed.

From Decor Pad. This is the arrangement that I think would be more functional.

On the opposite wall:

I am thinking a combination of these two - a TV console/bookshelf/wardrobe.

While in Italy, my friend had a large wardrobe system on one side of her bedroom and it was storage, a closet and also where she put her flat screen TV. I thought it worked very nicely and you could just slide the doors over.

On Pottery Barn, I played around with their room planner and this is how I would like to lay out the room.

The pieces need to be flexible since eventually this room would be a play room or another full bedroom again. We don't want to invest too much in the furnishings, but we do need it to be functional and fun!