Behold:
Go ahead...bask in it's awesomeness.
This is what I've been up to folks. This is...my masterpiece. Well alright, it's Royal Design Studio's masterpiece, but this was my big project for a while so I'm claiming it as mine.
About a month ago,
Royal Design Studio contacted me and asked if I was interested in reviewing one of their stencil's. I squealed and accepted whole heartedly! You see, I've had a plan to stencil my bedroom wall ever since hearing about Royal Design Studio. I've seen the end results after using these stencils...I've had a crush for a while.
I squealed again when it came in the mail and I squealed when I told my husband what I was planning on doing. He quickly told me I was on my own. You see, he painted most of our place by himself when we moved in. In my defense, I had the flu and while I tried helping, I was just told to sit back down and rest. But I was really on my own. I didn't mind. The stencil is really a one person project anyway, unless you were to get a second stencil and have another person working with you. Which isn't a bad idea...you'd get it done twice as fast.
But that was fine - this was my project and I knew it was going to turn out amazing.
I got started one evening after work, with the intent to finish that weekend. I completely believed I could finish this project in one weekend, and I probably could have if I had realized a few things first:
- Don't get a cold when you're painting a wall. Seriously, what is my deal with getting sick when it comes time to paint stuff?! Also - never mix Day Quil with a detail oriented project. I repeat: NEVER. I had issues with my equilibrium - also blurry vision didn't help. This zapped so much energy too, I know that you can't really plan not to get sick, but avoid it. Because I needed to take frequent breaks to rest my sick head, this added a lot of time to this project.
- Read directions. I might have saved myself...days if I had done the stencil first and worried about cleaning up any uneven lines until after the stencil was completely on the wall. I cleaned up as I went...and then I got a little anal about it which, turns out, tacks on a lot of time.
- If you know you have a step ladder buried somewhere in your storage closet - FIND IT. My storage closet is...chaos. About 5 months ago I organized it, so now its organized chaos, but I genuinely can't remember if the step ladder was in there and I didn't feel like taking apart a very intricate tetris-like storage closet, so I opted for a stool.
- Don't use a stool as a step ladder. I didn't have a catastrophic fall that resulted in a broken bone...which I really thought might happen. I did somehow lose balance, come down on top of a shoe box and give myself a cardboard paper cut underneath my pinky toe. I'm still not sure how it happened, but what I do know is that shoe box went flying across the room. I don't have rage issues, it's just that having a cardboard paper cut underneath your pinky toe is shockingly painful.
- Seriously, don't use a stool as a step ladder. When it came time for the ceiling, I thought I was going to die at least 7 times. I lost footing and in doing so, scared a couple years off my life. I kept having flashes of Million Dollar Baby. Terrifying. Small upside: from having to step up onto that stool and step down off of that tall stool, I got an amazing workout for my thighs.
- Don't try to move big furniture by yourself. You might realize you're a weakling and hurt your back a little bit. And yes, this resulted in slow moving and was more of a time suck as well. Luckily my husband took pity on me and helped me move the bed.
- Don't work around furniture. Move your furniture far enough away that you're not cramped behind your headboard with two feet of space to work with...making you contort in ways that left me feeling like I have the joints of a 60 year old. I had to take small breaks to walk around and stretch out my legs. Again...time consuming.
- Don't go away for a weekend when you have a wall to stencil. My husband and I went on a quick weekend trip to Boise to watch the BSU vs. Air force game. I know, you shouldn't let a stencil control your life, but I really could have used that weekend to get things done instead of doing a little here and there after work.
I think the one thing out of all of those little lessons that effected me the most was the cold. I know I could have had this done two weeks ago if I hadn't gotten sick. It was a doosy of a head cold too, and it just took it out of me. Hence the complaining about all the other little things.
Because of these set backs, this took 3 weeks. Please understand me when I say: this shouldn't take a normal human being three weeks. As you'll review above - I had problems.
The process itself isn't complicated - in fact it's pretty simple, and really, the stencil does so much work for you - especially since they have these great little perforated dots that help you stay even.
I know most anyone will tell you that when you're choosing a paint color, choose the color you love the most and then actually get it a shade lighter. It always seems that paint dries darker than the sample. I LOVE the color that I got, but it was darker than I originally planned.
You might remember I had a hard time choosing...but I eventually chose "Studio" in an eggshell finish.
Now...I know you're saying to yourself, "Where's her before picture?"
Yeah...remember? I was on Day Quil. It didn't occur to me until after I had started. Because I'm a genius like that.
To begin: Royal Design Studio suggests a spray adhesive, but since I'm awesome at reading directions, I had already gone out and bought blue painter's tape and thought - meh, I'll make it work. Seriously - the spray adhesive really would have helped a lot. With using tape, you get lined up and ready to tape it to the wall, but sometimes tape moves...and you readjust more than you'd like. If I decide to do this to another room, I'm DEFINITELY getting spray adhesive.
I did read the instructions enough to see the word "level" and I'm so glad I paid attention to that detail. I know you think you have a pretty good eye, but you wouldn't believe how easy it is to start tilting. This would have been a complete disaster without the level.
Seriously - use a level.
I began painting in an unseen corner of my room because as with many things, I planned for a learning curve and didn't want the learning curve to be seen smack in the middle of the wall.
I started using a small roller, but eventually moved to a 2" paint brush because I noticed the roller was getting paint underneath the plastic and making blots of paint that weren't fun to fix. The technique I ended up using was paint toward the inside of the stencil from the outside edges, this worked out best.
With each stencil, since I was painting on white, it needed two coats. So after the second coat was on, I deliberated on whether or not I should leave the stencil up while it dries a little or not. I had images of the stencil accidentally dragging through the wet paint and leaving a big gray swipe through all that hard work. But honestly, it's always best to remove the stencil while the paint is wet. I found that if the stencil stayed against the wall, it made the edges sticky and on a couple places of the wall, small chunks of wall ripped off the wall with the stencil. It was small and unnoticeable, but I learned really quickly to just take it off while it was wet!
Now, the directions said that this would happen and the directions said that it was best to wait until you've stenciled the entire area until you go back, sand down and touch up. But as you'll remember...I didn't read the directions until after this was done, so immediately I felt this needed attention and I went to correcting those lines.
I used a fine tipped paint brush. This came in a $4 paint brush kit from Hobby Lobby that I bought to paint the Owl Canvas for my niece. This did the job beautifully.
I used the fine tipped paint brush along the edges and it was perfect! Also you'll see the incredibly helpful lines that the stencil leaves for you to go onto the next patch of wall. These are little life savers and I can't say enough about how helpful these were. Seriously - genius idea.
The hardest part was edges and corners. The stencil itself is really pliable and does bend enough to help, but getting it to stay down once that happens is the trick. Hobby Lobby sells small plastic squares for a person to make their own stencil and I almost went out and bought them about 40 times because if I had just bought it and traced out the part of the stencil I needed, it could have made a world of difference, but I was on Day Quil. I wasn't thinking clearly and just decided to power through.
And I'm SO glad that I powered through because LOOK AT THIS GORGEOUS WALL:
It makes SUCH an impact on the room now. I finished it late last night and today when I walked in and I caught it out of the corner of my eye, I stopped in my tracks to admire it. I LOVE the end result. LOVE LOVE LOVE it!
Obviously the room isn't "finished." We have a white mirror in storage that we're hanging above the bed and I'm planning on framing some pictures I took in Italy, black and white, above the lamps as well.
Then there's always trying to talk my husband into this:
Because how pretty is this?! And how pretty would it be with throw pillows in different shades of purple?!
Hey...it is on clearance.
But that's for another day...because I have a pretty wall that's worth admiring. I'm really pleased with the end result - you have no idea.
And guess what?
Be sure to stop by on Wednesday next week to enter to win a Royal Design Studio stencil of your own! Then you could have a pretty wall like mine!!!!
And ooh, guys...wouldn't this be so pretty in there too?!!!
Ok seriously, I have to stop.
