It’s week three of the One Room Challenge, and today I’m sharing the highs and lows of stenciling my daughter’s bedroom. If you’re new here, welcome and thank you for following along on my budget friendly bedroom refresh for my middle daughter, Gracie.
WEEK ONE. WEEK TWO. WEEK THREE. WEEK FOUR. WEEK FIVE. WEEK SIX. WEEK SEVEN. WEEK EIGHT
This week I tackled stenciling the walls and oh my, was I naive! Tears were shed and hours upon hours of podcasts consumed (where my Arm Chair Experts and Smartless fans at?). But the result? Well worth it!
When planning Gracie’s room one of her main requests was a “cool wall treatment”. I immediately thought of wallpaper and after searching fell in love with this beautiful neutral floral design. Unfortunately it ate up too much budget so I switched gears, keeping in mind the wallpaper as inspiration.
I thought maybe, just maybe a stencil could be the next best option when wallpaper is out of budget.
When I found Royal Design Studio’s Floral Firework Stencil it was love at first sight. The perfect whimsical floral that if done in a neutral paint would be the perfect compliment to the other design elements in her room. I mocked up a sample on computer paper using our leftover bedroom paint, Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Grey, and hung it up in her room for a few weeks. By luck our leftover paint was the perfect neutral which leans towards beige, appearing slightly warmer.
With my daughter fully on board, I grabbed my supplies and started stenciling on a Tuesday afternoon (expecting to finish up by Wednesday, photograph and post for a Thursday update). Spoiler alert, I did not make that self imposed deadline! If you follow along on Instagram then you know I spent 2.5 hours stenciling a section of the wall only to paint over it and start again! Ugh.
Two things, friends. One, do your research and pick a spot to start your stencil that is inconspicuous. I did not, and hence starting over. Two, pick an application method and don’t switch between the two. I first started applying the paint with a beauty blender. I know, I know they make stencil brushes but mine hadn’t arrived so I picked the next best thing. I did one row with the beauty blender before I switched to a foam roller to speed up the process. When I stepped back you could distinctly see the two different applications. The beauty blender gave a water color appearance with varying color. The foam roller was solid and flat. In my gut, I knew if I continued I wouldn’t be happy so I cried, out of frustration and wasted time, and painted over the stenciled wall.
Is it even a good DIY if tears aren’t shed at some point?
The next morning, after researching stenciling tips & tricks, I came back with a plan. I was going to create a feature wall using the beauty blender for a water color appearance. As much I wanted to give up and scrap the whole project, I knew Gracie had her heart set on it. The thought of stenciling her entire bedroom was daunting and my confidence was shot but I could manage one wall. Four hours later, I had created a beautiful feature wall. I mean, look at the beauty blender technique that looks like watercolor. Swoon!
When she got home from school she shrieked with excitement and asked for it to be on ALL the walls. How could I say no? I couldn’t. Two very sore shoulders, one hand that never wants to dab again and 18 hours later she has the most stunning faux wallpaper. I’m proud of myself. I wanted to give up. I wanted to throw the budget out and buy the wallpaper. But I didn’t. I started over. I didn’t give up. I got it done.
Be sure to head over to the One Room Challenge Blog to check out all of the spaces that the designers and guest participants will be making over. My favorite part besides tackling a space is following along and encouraging participants along the way.
