Dining Room

Up until Thursday morning, the thought had not crossed my mind to paint my eat in kitchen/ dining room.

Thursday morning while the boys were finishing breakfast I was piddling on the computer and somehow came across this blog. I thought, "isnt that neat?" She got the idea from this blog. This is when I thought, "where can I do this?"

I went into my bedroom and thought I might try it in there. As I was walking back into the kitchen and I saw this wall.... bare and screaming for some type of facelift.

BEFORE

AFTER

The best part it cost me NOTHING... Yep, nada, zilch, zero dollars. I used 4 items. Cardboard that I had in the garage, a pencil, white paint that was in the garage, and a child' paintbrush that I found in my laundry room. My materials.

I copied and cut out the stencil and transferred it onto cardboard. I started tracing away. I traced and traced and traced and traced. I then painted and painted and painted and painted. Total time from Thursday morning to Friday afternoon was probably 8ish hours.

The tracing

The pattern

Lessons I learned.

1- Space the stencil further apart then you think you might want. It gives you some wiggle room for mistakes. Below are examples.

Too close
- this was the first section I did and it is laden with mistakes. Oh well, not doing it over again.

Though still not as perfect as the blogs above, it shows that even not perfect- still works nicely. But notice that further apart looks a ton better.

2- Go ahead and buy a real paintbrush. Once I started with the boy's kid paintbrush, I didnt want to have two different looks. If you look at the blogs I references above, their lines are super crisp, mine are sooo not.... I attribute that to the brush (plus I am not a good detail painter).

3- The pencil will show through the paint so trace lightly.

4- Make sure your stencil is straight, it will make the corners a whole lot easier. Here is the first corner, I had to free hand the bottom because I had slightly slanted earlier.


5- View the vertical section as one solid column and not a bunch of individual stencils, it makes a smoother paint line (less choppy).

6- If you can, practice this technique before you start or start at a spot that is not visible. I didnt not have the luxury of having a hidden wall so you can definitely tell where I started.

7- Most mistakes are not going to show up... the pattern is intricate enough that mistakes will get hidden.

I think my imperfect wall is perfect, flaws and all. It gives this whole space a new look and transitions beautifully from the new stripes in the living room.

I am working on a photo gallery wall in here too, but I will not get the pictures until Monday or Tuesday but be on the look out for the total finished product.