Hand Painted "Wallpaper"

Hello hello!
Countdown: six days :)

I am here to show you how I did this to our guest bathroom:

It only took me three weeks.

Wallpaper is definitely coming back... but doing the whole glue she-bang? No thanks. The stencil method- although extremely tedious- is much easier. It adds such pizazz to the bathroom but there is no way I'm doing it again! At least not to an entire room (and this is a small room)! Here are the steps.

Print the super cute stencil template from Jones Design Company: thank you Emily for offering this! I cut it out and laminated it to make it more sturdy (although when painting wall corners, it can be kind of tricky).

 

 

Start tracing... and tracing... and tracing... Now, I eyeballed the placement of the stencil. You could level it as you went along... I mean, I'm OCD but not THAT much. Obviously there are some wonky areas if you look close, but if you come to my house and point out minor flaws, I probably won't invite you back ;) Ha- I kid! But I may cry. So just don't do it, k? Nate played hand-model to me, isn't he the sweetest?

Anyways, after tracing the entire room (well, I did small sections of tracing/painting so I wouldn't go insane), it was time to paint! I used a small art brush to paint and stayed on the inside of the pencil lines. Use a brush that matches the thickness of the lines that you want, it will be much easier! Although I did start to push harder and my lines got thicker. Whoops.

The color we used was a light blue that we had left over from our master bedroom (colors flowing from one room into the other, yes please!). So yes. Paint. By hand. The entire room.

Three weeks. Three. Weeks. But doesn't it look purdy?

I do have some spots to touch up but I am so ready to decorate: the fun part! Stay tuned for part two: off to do some decorating! And not to be confused, but I am done with the entire room. I guess I didn't upload complete pictures... you will see soon enough!

Has anyone else ever done wall stencils before? Hand cramps? Dizzy spells from looking at the same thing over and over and over and over and over again? Do tell.

P.S. SIX DAYS. Did I not say that already? :)