Is Stenciling Back??

I've never been a big stencil fan.

In part because of the process.  It's grueling in that it is so detail oriented…one slip of the brush or move of the stencil and it's over.

Also, because stenciling reminds me of the 80's and 90's and not in a good way…I'm talking white bows stenciled on dusty pink walls (does this remind you of your girlhood bedroom??)

So when my sister, Laurel, called and said she wanted me to help her stencil the nursery for her new baby I suggested a mural.  So much more fun to do!  Let the creative energy flow!  Or wallpaper, I mean how many cute children's wallpapers are there?  Tons, I tell you, TONS.

But she insisted.  She ordered a stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils which has tons of new (read: not 80's) styles that you could almost mistake for wallpaper.

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Laurel has classic taste and likes subdued colors and clean lines.  She opted for a conservative trellis stencil using gray as a base color and white as the "fill in" on the stencil.

Here is the stencil layout:

Laurel chose the Trellis Allover Stencil.

The stencil is really quite large at 23" x 25".  This was happy surprise because although it still took "forever" we weren't moving a eight inch square across the wall as I was anticipating.  

Also, it was quite nice that you don't have to let the paint dry before moving the stencil….you can move the stencil down and overlap the plastic right on top of the the wet paint.  

As you can see, you do have to tape off the sides and ceiling.  

But they do give you an "edge" stencil for use at the top and sides…which we ended up cutting to work better.

Clean-up is easy…its just like with a plastic paint pallet.  Wet it and pull it off!  (This is the best part!)

After several hours (ok, more like eight) here is how it looked when I left:

Not completely done but 95%.  As you can see after we evaluated how much time it takes, we abandoned the idea of doing all four walls and called it a day after an accent wall.

My final take on stenciling:  If you want the look of wallpaper without the price, go for it!  But don't expect to start and finish in a few short hours.