Painted Wallpaper

Our house is old.
Our house isn't perfect.
Our house has *character* out the wazoo.
Our house has a room just off the living room.
It used to be a covered porch.  {Who gets rid of a covered porch!?!}

And our house is our home.  I love it.  I try to find ways to make it pretty.

When I saw the painted wall paper at Jones Design Company, I was blown away.  All that time.  All that energy.  All that cuteness.
How did she do that with four children running around?
Did she send them away for a month?

Oh how I loved that painted wall paper!
I wanted it.

If she could do it with four children, well dang it, I could do it with one!



One very inspired, audacious, brave day, I decided that I was going to do it.
It only made sense to do it.  I had a good list of reasons why:

1.  It would beat my winter blues.  January and February were stencil time.

2.  I would do it slowly in little spurts of time-aka, nap time.

3.  If I didn't like it, I could always paint over it.

4.  If I liked it, then that would be awesome.

For several weeks, I spent little bits of time in my craft room.  Here were my companions:

my stencil
a pencil
pencil sharpener
paint brush
glass jar {with lid} of white paint

{Side story:  this used to be the tool room, until I took it over.
Now it's the craft room and soon to be the craft/computer room.}

If you are crazy and are thinking about doing this, then here is what I would like to tell you:

1. Painted wall paper on plaster walls is a bit more difficult.  I'm currently working on stencil coat #2 because the paint goes on thin on plaster.

2.  Next time, I would use a WHITE PENCIL to trace with.  The pencil marks are bad.  

3. I would get a better pencil sharpener.

4.  It is 100% worth the effort!  

I really love it!  John really loves it!  Without the stencil, my living room felt like one big room with a partial wall in the middle.  Now, it feels like a separate nook just off of the living room.  The blues are the same, so the rooms still flow.

I would do it all over again.  

If you want to see other crazy people with too much time on their hands, click on the link below: