Stenciling the Front Hall

It’;s long overdue but finally DONE. The foyer and hallway are finally painted and the wow factor is this stenciled wall that I painstakingly painted for weeks and weeks.

I’;ve stenciled many projects before, like this desk a few years ago, but this project took so much longer. I’;m not sure if it was the wall or the size of the stencil but I’;m just glad it’;s finished.

At first I thought about hanging a large painting over the bench, but because it’;s used so often (for putting on shoes and boots) I was afraid the art would get knocked into a lot. And besides, the stencil IS the ar2rk in this room.

Here is the wall freshly painted but looking pretty bland. ; The bench is from Hotel Liquidators in New Haven, Connecticut and I painted the dark wood frame a light gray. ; The original brown vinyl seat was covered in a pretty waverly fabric. The artichoke is actually a garden accessory but I like it indoors.

The winner for the walls was Benjamin Moore’;s Collingwood.

I ordered this Venus wall stencil from Stencil Boss. It was $ 39.00—much less than wallpaper would have cost.

The key to stenciling is to spray the back with spray adhesive. This makes it tacky and sticks to the surface with less bleeding.

I used a foam roller to roll the paint on, and in spite of the spray adhesive there were areas where the paint bled underneath the stencil and needed a lot of touch up.

It needed a touch of metallic and I was thrilled to find these wall stickers…no need to paint perfect circles!

Simply peel and stick—my favorite part of the job!

I brought the hanging star light with us from our last house. It’;s from Direct from Mexico and one of my favorite fixtures.

Honestly, ; if I had to do it again I would have hung wallpaper. It was a beast of a job and there are imperfections that hopefully my guests won’;t notice but I know are there. But I’;m happy with the overall effect and so glad it’;s done!