Before & After Office Makeover

Featured Stencil Wall for Office Makeover

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I basically had a new office since Hurricane Harvey.  I mean, it was painted and I had pictures on the wall.  Still, it seemed kind of drab, boring and crowded.  I quit my job as a mortgage underwriter and I was ready for something new.  Just repaint a wall to make it bright and inspirational was really all I wanted.

My thought was to repaint one wall as a feature wall.  You know, to make a small statement.  I decided to stencil my wall.  How easy and quick is that?  Right?  Wrong! I ended up making over my entire office.

This all started out simple enough.  I was going to order a stencil and paint it on one wall.  That’s it!

I ordered my stencil, “Allover Rose” from Cutting Edge Stencils ” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Cutting Edge Stencils.

Cutting Edge Stencils ” rel=”nofollow”>

 

From feature wall to full makeover

I picked out my two paint colors.  One color was the base coat and one color was the stencil color.   That was my plan but that is not what happened.

My ceiling was regular flat white paint and I decided I needed to change that.  My beige base color soon became my ceiling color.  Here comes the plastic and the painter’s tape and the drop clothes and well you know…all the prep stuff.

Next, I painted three of my walls purple.  Yes, I said purple and I love it.  There are no rules and I do what makes me happy.  Purple makes me happy.  So three wall painted purple…done!

My paint colors came from Lowe’s and are Sherwin Williams paint colors.  The beige color is called, “Oyster Bar” SW7565.  The purple paint is “Violet Twilight” HGSW2412.  An eggshell finish is what I chose because I wanted my paint to dry quickly.

Now to stencil my feature wall.

I started with my stencil in the upper left corner of the wall. I used painters’ tape to adhere the stencil to the wall.  I used a small 4-inch roller that I removed excess paint by rolling on a metal grate. Now, it is written that you should use a paper towel to remove the excess paint.  I did not do that because I did not want any lint from the paper towel to get on my roller.

The stencil must overlap the previously painted stencil work.  Your paint must be dry in order to do this.  You cannot put a stencil on wet paint.  This is why I used an eggshell finish because the drying time is much quicker and I didn’t want to wait.

What I learned

I learned quite a bit with my first-time stencil job.

• Clean your stencil often.  I noticed that I had to add more and more pressure to get the paint in the tiny design.  Had I cleaned my stencil more often I would not have had this extra work and my paint would have been more consistent.  When I did finally clean my stencil about half way through and continue, the paint was much darker.

•  Buy the biggest stencil offered. I chose the smallest stencil because I was cheap.  Had I paid just a few dollars more, I would have finished faster and had fewer mistakes.

• Get an eggshell finish unless you have a lot of time to spare.

 

• Watch out for the borders. You get a top stencil to finish between the ceiling and where the actual stencil begins.  This is great but the side borders were an issue.  The right side was no problem as I just continued to bend the stencil around the corner.  I should have started the left side the same way.  Going back to fill in on the left side of the wall was difficult and messy.

 

My office turned out to be beautiful.  I love it and it was well worth the effort.  Everyone thinks it is awesome.

Yes, there are plenty of mistakes and it is not perfect at all.  The photos really show that.  In person, it is not so evident.  We added crown molding and baseboards.  I will take what I learned here and use that knowledge to do better next time.  Perhaps my back porch!

Here is a little video to show you the whole process.  Yes, I am a dork.

Order your own stencil right here!

Let me know what you think!

Until next time,

Kari