So it took me a few months, but I {finally} stenciled a wall in my living room over Christmas break. I am in love with how it turned out! Why did it take me to long to do it?! It was so hard to decide which wall in my house to stencil because I don't have many nice small rectangle walls and
my family room has wood paneling so that wasn't an option. So I did the random wall to the right when you walk into our house.
My stencil is from
Cutting Edge Stencils and I won it from one of my favorite DIY bloggers - Sam at
The Junk House. The stencil I choose was the Harlequin Trellis Allover Stencil. The background wall color is Comforting by Behr and the stencil color is Metallic Silver by Martha Stewart.
Metallic paint is so much fun! So glad I choose that after MUCH debating over what color I would use.
Surprisingly, it didn't even use half of the paint to do the entire wall! So, I have a lot to use on other projects...hmm. However, it is really difficult to take pictures of because it reflects light, but that's what I love so much about it in real life!
It took about 4-5 hours to complete. And that was with my standing back and admiring my work after each stencil and also "erasing" a few sections when I decided they looked funny or didn't match up perfectly. (The paint was actually pretty easy to wipe off even after being on the wall for 10-15 minutes!)
You can see in the progress pictures that the stencil does not go directly to the corners. Well, thankfully Cutting Edge Stencils gives you three stencils - the
large one, and two smaller ones to help fill in those smaller areas.
Painting the corners was the most difficult part of this project for me. Cutting Stencils recommends to bend the stencil so you can reach the corners, but this was really hard for me - probably because I didn't have any help.
After a little self convincing talk, I decided to cut the small stencil so that it would line up nicely against the wall. See the difference that made in the pictures above. It saved me a lot of time and frustration and probably some tears too. Just being honest here!
Isn't my wall beautiful?! I could just stare at it forever :)
Do you like our little snowman?! It was a Christmas gift from our neighbors. His name is Francis.
We're dog sitting for my in-laws right now as they are in Italy. JEALOUS! Anyway, Raphie likes Francis too.
Have you ever stenciled a wall? Please share!
The same day I was painting this wall my in-laws brought over this china cabinet for us! I love having a spot to put some of our pretty glass/crystal items - which mostly from our wedding :)
I was really frugal in my wedding planning adventure - but one thing I splurged on was this gorgeous cake topper from
Gina Freehill:
Sigh. It is so beautiful. I get so happy every time I see it. The couple just looks so intimately in love; I love the way the guy is holding the girl. Plus, many of my friends said this figurine reminded them of Kevin and me too. Down the side it says "This day I will marry my friend, the one I laugh with, live for, dream with, love." I love Gina's entire
Language of Love cake topper collection - check it out if you're getting married! It was almost as much as
my wedding dress (granted, I got a really good deal on my dress, so it really wasn't THAT expensive!).
I'm really happy it's no longer in hiding in our closet. Also our toasting flutes are "Waterford Wishes Happy Celebrations" and were a bridal shower gift - I put them on our registry even though I knew they were ridiculously expensive, but I just loved them so much, so that's another kind-of splurge that I am so happy to display!