hand painted wallpaper: tips

as part of my 11 weeks 'til summer cleaning and organizing challenge, our spare room got a bit of a makeover.
it is a super small room,
we're talking less than 150 sq. feet  (but it does have it's own bathroom!).

anyway, i wanted to make it seem bigger and wanted it light, bright, and fun.

so i created a "feature wall" that is hand painted wallpaper based on the pearl trellis wallpaper at ballard designs. 

oh, did i mention their wallpaper is $119.00 for a double roll?  yikes! 
here's my version:

i found an amazing tutorial at jones design company  on how to create the look myself.
(by the way, don't you love her blog and style?!)
it's ok, click over there, look around, and come back........
i'll wait.......

k, you're back--
i followed the tutorial pretty closely,
printed off the stencil template,
cut it out of cardboard,
traced it onto the wall (i left it white, but you could paint the wall any color first),
then painted inside the lines with behr ultra venus light in eggshell.

now, there were a few things i discovered as i went along and thought you'd like to know them BEFORE you do your own hand painted wallpaper.

my tips:
1.  this is a time consuming project:  take it a little bit at a time.  i did it during nap time for about 30-40 minutes for about 5-6 days.  my eyes couldn't take much more than that!

2.  use low contrast colors.  i used white and a light blue/aqua that made any mistakes or crookedness fairly invisible.  (i like the subtle excitement thing--i did a similar effect with the stripes in our kitchen)

same color, different finish

3.  use a colored pencil to trace the stencil---duh!  i didn't think of this until i was done with the wall, but it would've made covering the tracings a lot easier if i would've used a light blue pencil to start with.  you're welcome :)

4.  do this for the ceiling:

5.  mark which end of the stencil is "up" and make sure it is always facing the same direction.

 
6.  start in the middle at the ceiling and use a level to make your first couple of columns.  i "eye-balled" it the rest of the time, but worked from the horizontal center up.  it helps to do a combination of rows and columns simultaneously so that you can gauge the distance between the stencils/levelness, etc.  here's what i mean:  pretend this is my wall--

7.  this is sort of a no-brainer, but when painting always paint the lines to your left first (assuming you are right handed) so you don't put your hand in wet paint a million times...just saying....
 

now sit back, admire your hard work, and feel good that it cost a measly $3.99 for a whole new room!

more pictures to come as i finish the room..........hopefully in time for my sister and her family who are staying with us this weekend!


linkin' up here this week:









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