Entryway Makeover

I've always wanted an entry way. At the old house, I had to create the illusion of an entry way (see that post here), so another box this house checked on my dream home checklist was having an actual entry way. 

Above is the listing photo of the entry way. The photo doesn't really show the color of the walls, it was a color called "oriental yellow", which I hated. I repainted the living room and the hallway with Sherwin Williams' "Accessible Beige", a color that was from the old house, but I LOVED it. I did end up using Sherwin Williams Ovation, because we painted the hallway in the old house using Ovation, and it is definitely scrub-proof (something that DEFINITELY comes in handy for an entryway that gets lots of traffic).

The first step was taping everything off. This was my husband's job. Being an engineer, he is able to get a level of precision I could never event attempt. We wanted to tape out a checker board and stencil every other square, so this way it wasn't too random,  but it also wasn't too busy if we used every square.

My husband started taping the horizontal lines first, and used a laser level to make sure they were nice and straight. THEN we started the vertical lines. About 5 lines in, my husband realized it was taking a LOT of tape, and asked me if I would be able to make it work with small pieces of tape to denote the squares. That definitely worked for me, it saved him time, and it saved us masking tape. Once it was done, it looked like the above photo.

When I was ready to start stenciling, I taped the stencil up like so. This was my first time stenciling, so I tried two different brushes, a foam brush and a bristle brush. 

I prefer the foam brushes, because even though I thoroughly washed the bristle brush, the way I stenciled caused the bristles to come out. I may have been too vigorous of a stenciler, but they just did NOT work for me. I was able to properly pick up a small amount of paint and dab it with the foam brushes, whereas the bristles seemed to get UNDER the stencil as I had to move in small circles to get the paint onto the wall. 

The first stencil came out really well. I ended up using leftover paint from the kitchen remodel (Behr Doeskin Gray - check out that project here), so this was a subtle pattern, that you don't really notice it until the light hits it in just the right way.

When I finished the first wall, I stepped back to check out my handy work. I left the small, incomplete stencils (like the ones around the front door) for last, because I was going to need the willpower, and a second set of hands to hold the stencil while I vigorously stenciled - I REALLY let out any frustration when stenciling apparently.

At this point, the stencil was getting rather gunky. Some of the paint was going onto the back of the stencil, making the lines not so crisp. I put it in the guest bath tub, covered it with water, let it sit for about 10 minutes, then gently, in one direction, scrubbed the paint off. You don't want to be too rough when scrubbing, because you can bend some of the points of the stencil, and you don't want to break your stencil half-way through.

When you've scrubbed as much of the dried/gunky paint off as you feel comfortable with, be sure to DRY YOUR STENCIL. Lay it down on a towel, and fold the town over it and gently press. Then, take the towel and meticulously get the water off of all of the stencil. The last thing you want if you're using water-based paint, is for the paint to touch the water, dissolve, and run down your wall into spaces that you did NOT intend to stencil. This almost happened to me, but fortunately I caught it in time.

The finished product is just what I wanted. The pattern is so subtle you can only catch it at the right angle in the right lighting. It gives the wall a luxurious, almost silk-like look, and definitely sparks an interest for more stencil projects. 

So, if you want to tackle this project yourself, you'll need the following things:

1. Paint
2. Stencil Brushes - Like I said, I preferred foam, but if it's your first time try both to see what you prefer for your stenciling style. They are really cheap and can be found at most craft stores or in the craft section of big box stores like Walmart and Target.
3. Painters Tape
4. Level
5. Stencil - the most important ingredient!
6. Step Ladder - if you're short like me
7. Drop Cloth - if you're accident prone like me

I've given some thought to putting a mirror or console table in the hallway, but I am not sure what I want to do with the space at the moment. I remember how crowded it was when you came into my old house, so I may just leave the stencils to be the welcoming accent to my new home!