DIY Stenciled Wall
Hi guys! Hope you all had a great weekend. It was the perfect weekend here to kick off Spring here… beautiful weather, soccer games where Sawyer seemed to have his groove back with his new team, my first run since I was pregnant, grilled dinners and cold craft beers, Wilder’s first experience with bubbles, and projects in the house! That is my kind of weekend, the kind where my cup feels exactly full enough. This weekend I decided to tackle our entry and give it a little whimsical drama. You may have noticed with the past couple of projects I have shared such as Wilder’s removable wallpaper and our color blocked master bedroom walls that I have made a conscious effort to have a little more fun in my designs. While I loved our last home and every project I completed there, somehow over the last few years my design became a little “safe” which was great when it came time to sell the house. However, I used to be much more daring with a paint brush and my kids loved all of those moments in our home. I want them to grow up in a home where creativity and fun are encouraged, so it’s time to roll up our sleeves, try new things, and have fun in the process. Today I am going to show you a project that let’s people know as soon as they walk into our home, that we like to have fun: our new DIY stenciled wall in the entry. Disclosure: I received paint from Sherwin-Williams as compensation for this post. All views and opinions expressed in this post are my own and no other compensation was provided. Stencil Revolution also provided the stencil for this project. Affiliate links have been used in this post.
About a month or so ago, Stencil Revolution reached out to me to see if I’d like to try some of their stencils. I knew I wanted to stencil the floor tile in out master bathroom as well as the hall bathroom, so I selected a couple of their tile stencils. In addition I asked if they would send their twinkle star stencil, for which I had absolutely no plans but I felt drawn to it. Last Thursday as I was hashing out ideas for our entry, I decided it would be a great place to use that starry stencil.
To refresh your memory of what this space looked like before, here’s a listing photo where you can see it tucked back there behind the living room.
And just for fun, here’s the same angle of this space. (Note that I still need to take care of the window treatments at some point; currently just using some panels I had and the existing hardware).:
As you can see the entry has a chair rail which normally I am not a fan of, but I decided to take advantage of it in this space. I knew I wanted to use the leftover Sherwin Williams Greenblack from our master bedroom, and the perfect shade of white on the bottom. Because I love the quality of paint and the service I receive at my local store, I reached out to Sherwin Williams and asked them if they would partner with me on this project and they happily obliged and provided me with a couple gallons of Pure White in Harmony. I got two gallons because I also plan to use this color in our hallway as well as the walls in Wilder’s room that need to be painted. However, this weekend I was only focusing on the entry space.
I began by painting the upper portion of the walls above the chair rail in Greenblack. In our master bedroom this paint only required two coats, but Chris is a heavier roller than I. I was working on my own in this space so I ended up adding a third light coat. While that dried, I painted the bottom portion with two coats of pure white over the existing light gray from the previous owners. Here you can see that progress. Keep in mind the flooring in here will be changing to wood when we redo the kitchen, so that will help warm up the high contrast black and white.
While the second coat of pure white dried, I pulled out my twinkle star stencil and prepared to get to work. This particular stencil comes in a rather large sheet and as you can see, our entry consists of many small strips of all, so I decided to cut my stencil into a few sections. In addition to the stencil and paint I used Scotch platinum painter’s tape and a sponge stipple brush for stenciling.
I started in one section on the widest wall by taping the largest portion of the stencil to the wall and using the stipple brush, dapped in pure white, and then sponged onto the star cutouts of the stencil. After working on this wall, I started to panic… I honestly wasn’t sure if I loved it, but I pushed forward. Soon the kids came in and both proclaimed their love for it so far and that was enough to motivate me to keep going. As you can see below, I taped sections not in use to the door to dry while I worked with a different piece. I also worked all over the wall, as I let a section dry, rather than working in a direction. The solar system is random and I wanted to keep my wall feeling random as well.
I continued working like this until I got to the very end and all I had left was the thin strip of wall to the left of the closet above. When I reached that point, I cut off individual stars and used them to work my way up that strip. When I was finished, I backed away and I thought to myself, “OK, I think I like it.” By that time, it was dinner at our house, and I quickly cleaned up, showered, ate dinner, relaxed and finished reading my book. I went to bed knowing I would wake up the next day and decide whether or not I loved it.
The next morning I was in the kitchen making Sawyer breakfast, when Emmy ran into the entry, hugged the wall, and declared, “I just love this wall SO much!” Seeing the joy it brought to her face sealed the deal for me.
I need to get new switch plates in brass as well as a new modern light fixture that fits our style, we’re soon installing a new front door with windows, and of course the floors will eventually be wood, but this space screams fun already! When someone walks in the front door, this is their view in:
I love how it plays off of the living room and adds a bit of contrast.
(Note: If you’re looking for that sign, I ordered the download here, had it printed with vistaprint, and ordered a frame here.)
Looking into the living room from the entry, you can see that the black and white flows into this space.
Do you see that wall hanging below? I won it in a recent instagram giveaway and it couldn’t be more perfect for our living room. Also don’t look too closely because there’s a very disheveled magazine sitting on the dresser courtesy of Wilder… oops!
Now that the walls are painted, I am anxious to finish the other details in this space, especially change that light fixture (I have got my eye on this modern brass and white fixture), and as you can see we need to replace that vent. It’s clean, but not fully painted. It was once beige and was painted over poorly in white, but enough of the beige shows that it just looks filthy. Also, if you know of any lovely baby gates, send them my way. 😉
Little by little we are making this house ours. With every stroke of the brush, this little 1966 rancher is becoming a home filled with love, laughter, and a little chaos and mayhem for good measure.
