How to Stencil a Wall

I have finally finished the stenciling in the craft room {insert huge sigh of relief!}  Seriously, this took me sooo much longer than I had planned. If I could have quit mid way through I definitely would have. But it is done and I am very happy with the end result!

I think I really should have titled this post How NOT to Stencil a Wall as I definitely hit a few bumps along the way.  Hopefully, my mistakes will help to make your project a little easier!

Let me start out by saying that this project works best if you have some patience and are not a crazy, obsessed perfectionist.  Unfortunately, neither of these traits applies to me.  I had estimated that it would take about 4-5 hours but let's just say that I hugely underestimated my time.  I must be the slowest person in the world.  Did you guys ever watch Trading Spaces? {I totally loved this show by the way!}  I would so be the person that would be staying up all night freaking out... 

Okay, so here are some tips to make things a little easier for you. 

• Use a good stencil!  I purchased mine through Cutting Edge Stencils and am so glad that I spent the extra money.  I really could not imagine doing this with a flimsy or smaller stencil.
• Practice first! Try your stencil on a cardboard box or sample board first.  There definitely is a little learning curve to figure out how much pressure and paint you should use. 
• Tape off your mouldings and the edges of the walls that will not be painted with blue {low tack}painters tape.  You will also need the tape to adhere your stencil to the wall. 
• Start on the area of the wall that will be seen the least.  Since the bottom of my wall is covered with storage pieces and my desk, I started there {and am very glad that I did!}

• Use a dense foam roller with rounded edges so that the edges of the roller do not catch the stencil. 
• This may seem extremely obvious, but make sure your stencil is level!  Once the first few have been established it should get easier.  You will need a level or a plumb line.  I purchased this nifty little clip on level but did not realize that I did not have it attached straight to my stencil.  My first three stencils ended up being crooked.  See?  I told you I was glad I started on the bottom!

• Make sure you have left over paint from your base coat to do touch ups.  Little mistakes can be easily corrected with a little paint.  I ended up touching up around the edges with the base paint a lot!
• Baby wipes or a moist Q-tip can also work well to correct the more minor mistakes. 
• Remember that it is a stencil.  That means that there will be a few imperfections unless you would like to spend hours on touch ups! Yes, I definitely had problems with this little fact...
• Less paint is better.  It may mean that you have to go over your stencil a second time but it will save a lot of bleeding through.  Just let the first coat dry for a couple of minutes before re-rolling.
• The edges of the wall were a big pain in the *@* for me.  In the end, I found that it was much easier to just free hand them with pencil and then paint them in.  I really wish that I would have figured this out a lot sooner!

You know what was really painful?  After moving everything back into the room, I realized that I missed a row of stenciling...

Really???  I'm still not done???  This is when I figured out how much easier it was to freehand and paint!

So the painting is done and you guys will just have to wait a little bit longer to see the craft room reveal.  I totally forgot to take a picture of the completed wall before I started moving everything back in.  {I think I was going a little crazy by this point}

Have a great week!

I linked up with  Sew Crafty, The Girl Creative, The DIY Showoff, Under the Table and Dreaming, I Heart Naptime, Funky Junk Interiors, Be Different Act Normal, Tatertots and Jello,  Whipperberry,  Fingerprints on the Fridge, Tidy Mom, The Shabby Nest, Paisley Passions, House of Hepworths,Delightful Order, Passionately Artistic, Night Owl Crafting, Lil Luna, Blue Cricket Design, A Beach Cottage, This Blessed Nest, Sugar Bee Craft Edition, Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie, Polly Want a Crafter, CRAFT and Craft-O-Maniac.