Let the Makeover Begin!
Katie Craig
• BLOG •
So the bad part of being a designer is the trickle down effect. Well, it isn't exactly bad, it's just tiring!!
I have dreamt about fixing up, making-over, and adding on to our house constantly, but I don't manage much more than making a pinterest board . My 14 year old daughter on the other hand, is ready to makeover the entire house. She has really impressive plans for my office which involve a new rug, a new light fixture, a new couch, a new chair.... you get the picture. She pretty much has the same plans for all our other rooms too. After saying I can't afford her dreamy makeover ideas over and over, I got a bit tired! So when she asked if she could simply paint her room, I said sure! Next thing I know she had moved all the furniture and started, before I had a chance to give her my painting 101 basics! (I used to paint houses in college for extra money). So I gave her a whirlwind condensed version, fought off my perfectionism tendencies, and decided to let her just do it. Turns out she is an excellent painter! It also turns out, letting your child try to do more than you thought they could is a good idea. She really thrived with the task.
She picked Benjamin Moore Gray Cashmere for the walls, which I suggested we cut in half. It is now absolutely my favorite color for a sunny bedroom. It is so beautiful! But just a fresh coat of paint didn't quite transform the room enough for her. So she searched for some birch tree wallpaper to create an accent wall. Wallpaper doesn't look too expensive, but the price is by square foot so for just one wall it was going to cost at least $400, and that didn't include the labor to actually apply it! I didn't feel I could take on the task of wallpapering myself, so we looked for a stencil instead and found this beautiful one from StenCilit on Etsy for $59.97. It has pretty easy instructions so we decided to give it a go.
First we painted the wall a basic white with an eggshell finish, then taped the stencil to the top corner and rolled the Gray Cashmere (but in full strength to give a bit more contrast) over the stencil to create the trees. This was easy and came out perfectly! After that you tape the stencil so the pattern overlaps and lines up with what you just did. Now you have to let go of the word perfect. After that first application the stencil sort of warps and distorts from the wet paint and can no longer lie perfectly flat. BUT it's ok! Just sort of work with it and get it close enough. Surprisingly you don't notice the imperfections and it actually contributes to how cool the wall looks when you are done. I love it!
The only problem is, now the rest of the house looks really shabby in comparison. We just may have to bring some of my dreamy pinterest boards to life after all. Let the makeover begin!
(Since writing this, I'm so happy to say Stencilit featured our makeover on their blog! See it here!)
The makeover complete!