A Finished Project – The Stenciling of the Foyer

Let’s just say that I’m not the most “diligent” on this whole blogging thing. Fairly obvious. The post below has been sitting 3/4 complete for over a year! Several friends have asked for details lately on how I stenciled the foyer…so, with their prompting, here you have it!

Since the very first day we moved into our house (about a year and a half ago), the foyer has been on “the list.”

“The List” (noun): The ever-growing, never-completed list of things that NEED to be fixed/changed/updated/loved in your dwelling. Most often includes un-realistic deadlines. High possibility of ever-changing priority assigned to items. Various forms include paper, computer file, reminders (IPhone), notes (IPad, IPhone), apps bought specifically for this purpose, back of receipts, and (my favorite) the never ending script inside your head.

So. I finally tackled it. I hunkered down and just did it. And, during the back-to-school season (it’s just how I work – can’t help it). The phases of this project can be broked down into research, decide, do. Research and deciding took much longer than the doing.

Research and Decisions

I have known for months that I wanted to stencil the top half of our foyer. That was the easy part. The former owners had adorned this area with mauve and blue patterned wallpaper. I liked the concept of pattern in that area of the house, but just not that pattern. Yes, I know wallpaper is trendy right now, but I wasn’t feeling it (nor feeling the necessity to pay someone to do this project for me). The pattern needed to make a statment, but not be so bold a statement that I would get tired of it after a year. A tonal stencil made perfect sense – now just to narrow down WHICH stencil and WHICH tone!

I pinned, I googled, I asked around. All of that research helped me to know enough about the process so that I finally trusted my own thoughts about what I wanted to do. But, not until the next step was figured out.

Getting started was incumbent upon choosing the colors to paint above and below the chair rail. Sounds easy enough, right? Except that the color below the chair rail was also destined to be the color of the adjacent dining room (already determined to be navy) and the color above needed to be a color re-visited in many areas throughout the house – wanted a creamy gray). All that to say, I felt pressure. Painting with a full plate of children and work and activities is not trivial – it’s an activity that one does not care to re-do (anybody with me?).

The Doing

Paint was chosen and applied. Scary stuff y’all. Navy is not for the weak among us, but it actually painted beautifully (Benjamin Moore – Hale Navy – mixed at Farrell Calhoun paints – love it!). The above the chair rail color is Awakening (0560) from Farrell Calhoun – in love with this color, perfect creamy neutral gray.

The stencil I chose was from Hobby Lobby (link here). I like my stencil, but in full disclosure, I chose it because I could physically walk in a store, purchase it, and walk out. Done. (Sometimes I need that. The 40% off coupon didn’t hurt either. )
Other equipment needed is a stencil roller, shallow dish, paint, and temporary spray adhesive. The actual stencil paint I used (after I tried to make this far too complicated) was a pearlized white craft paint. Yes, craft paint, as in the kind that comes in squirt bottles. I used about 4 for this project.

1. Place the stencil in a corner and make sure it looks straight (use a level if you’ve got one, otherwise eyeball it). Mark placement – (my stencil had a small triangle in each corner).
2. Take the stencil outside and spray the back with the spray adhesive. Wave it around in the air for a second until it gets tacky, then it’s ready to put on the wall. Line the stencil to the markings you just made and press it lightly against the wall.
3. Squirt about 3 squeezes of the bottle of paint into your flat container, roll your roller around until it’s coated, but not dripping, and go for it! Don’t press down too much, just lightly roll until you’ve covered the whole stencil.Get ready for the magic…gently remove your stencil. Voila!
4. Line up the triangles and go for it again – you don’t have to wait until your first one is dry to paint more.
5. Repeat. And repeat. And repeat again.

I didn’t tackle this project in a day, or even a week. I would do a couple of squares when I had a chance and then devote an hour to parts that I needed a stool for, etc. That being said, I don’t have an estimated completion time. Everytime someone new sees the stencil, her eyes get big and she just says, “how?” I smile and say “a little here, a little there!”

Some pictures of the end result: