One of the most fun makeovers we've done to date (and one of the biggest transformations!) was our dreary to cheery family room makeover. Let me just tell you, it was also a TON of work. After we removed the dated wallpaper (using this fab method, which made it so much easier than we anticipated), we stenciled a wall that made a huge statement. Without this stencil, the room would totally be lacking the personlity it now has. We are in love.
The most important thing to do when stenciling is to purchase a high-quality stencil. This will make the process so much smoother. Our go-to stencil source is Royal Design Studio- we seriously don't mess around with anything else! They're just the best re-usable heavy plastic stencils around. Funny story: we loved the look of this Herringbone Shuffle stencil so much that we decided to use it in this family room. However, when we opened it up (right before we started stenciling- oops!), we realized we accidentally ordered the Get Ziggy with It stencil, which is still awesome, but not quite as organic and random as we wanted.
Get Ziggy With It Stencil So, we recreated the look of the herringbone shuffle on our own by randomly painting some of the openings. Ha! So, if you love this look, save yourself some trouble and order the right stencil!
Stenciling offers big bang for your buck! For the cost of just paint and the stencil, you can have an amazing focal wall that will wow everyone who comes into your home, but getting started can be daunting if you've never done it before. If you're new to stenciling, but want to give it a try, make sure you check out our post all about how to stencil, which includes everything you need to make the job go smoothly.
Picking the right colors is key, too. We wanted a fun, bright, cheery color palette and I think we totally nailed it, (if I do say so myself.)
One other thing to note: this wall took us approximately 10-12 hours to finish. Stenciling is no joke, people, but again, it's sooooo worth the end result! So, grab your best friend, a fabulous stencil from Royal Design Studio, and go to town!
To check out the rest of this room, click HERE. To watch this full episode of Knock It Off, click HERE Have you ever tackled stenciling a wall? Did we convince you that you TOTALLY SHOULD??
Have you ever looked at your house and thought, well… this is just what it has to be. I can't do much to change it. That's exactly what we heard from Terry, the homeowner of this episode of Knock It Off. I should mention that even though she wasn't liking much about her house, she had the most meticulously clean and cared for home- I want to be like her when I grow up! Now, back to the design- Terry had dark wood everywhere (which some peeps love, but it was dragging her down), wallpaper from almost every decade, and just not a whole lot going for them… Or so she thought!
See what I mean? It's just not the kind of room that inspires you to"Be Awesome" on a daily basis. So, Jess and I decided to take this room from dreary to cheery (yes slightly cheese ball-ish) with a really fun, bright color palette.
How's that for bright and cheery and just overall awesome?!?
We love the impact an accent wall can have and after we removed the circa 1970s wallpaper, we knew that a Royal Design Studios stencil was the way to go! We'll be posting on how to remove wallpaper (we know you want our tips and tricks!) and all about stenciling an accent wall. For now, just enjoy the eye candy!
Terry's family room connected directly to this tiny sunroom she uses as an office and study area. We didn't have money for new chairs, but we were able to build a bench seat (all we needed was wood and 1 piece of drywall! Tutorial coming soon!). We tossed on a few World Market pillows that were on major clearance and we had ourselves a super inviting sunroom! I literally had to pull Jess away from this comfy seat to keep working!
We worked with furniture Terry owned, like this gem and just gave it a new sassy swaga with some paint and two pieces of hardware. If you have a piece of furniture that seems beyond dated, just try giving it a bold color paint and see what happens- it's kind of like magic!
Some of Terry's furniture we used (like the adorable table we upcycled), but other things like the huge ottoman they had, had to go. Instead, we built our own table using 2x4s and 2x6s. This piece looks so expensive because of the X frame, but it's easy-peasy to build (tutorial coming soon!). I think my favorite thing from this episode was seeing how empowered Terry and Jesse felt. I sound all Dr. Phil, but I'm serious! They thought they just had to settle for how their house was, but now they know the awesome potential it has! Since we filmed that episode Terry has sent us pictures of other furniture they've upcycled, and she's painted her dining room walls and all the trim! Jess and I feel like proud Mamas! So, no, we can't come to every single reader's home (we wish we could!!), but hopefully by seeing what we're doing with homeowners on Knock It Off, you're feeling like you don't need to settle either! Here'a a little more before and after action for ya!
Hello adorable sunglasses pillow! Thanks Homegoods for always having amazing things to use in our makeovers!
See how the little sunroom flows right off the family room?
If you missed this episode, what are you waiting for? Click HERE to watch it online! We promise we'll get all these tutorials to you really soon! I mean with our amazing intern Diana, is there anything we can't do??: ) She's the best! What do you think of this makeover? Do you have one of those rooms in your house where you just feel stuck? Do Tell!
I don't know about you, but I'm itching to Fall-ify my home. You know that"let's get cozy, wear sweatshirts and bring out the pumpkins" feeling? Yeah, I have it. One of the major focal points for seasonal decor in our house is our fireplace and mantel, which I decided to give a little makeover before bringing out my Fall stuff. All it takes is chalk paint, a stencil and a lot of patience. I originally posted this project a few weeks ago over at Infarrantly Creative, but have been dying to share it with you! I can't believe how much I love my fireplace now, and I think you will too.
I'm not going to lie, this was not an easy project. In fact, it took me at least 6 hours of painting and stenciling, but it was so totally worth! Here'e what you need to do: 1. Prep your fireplace. Remember my peach marble tile fireplace surround that I hated? Yuk. I first painted it with Annie Sloan chalk paint that I got from Shaunna who writes Perfectly Imperfect and sells AS paint, but before I did that, I wiped it down with a damp cloth to remove and dirt, dust and soot.
2. Choose your paint. I used Annie Sloan's chalk paint in Pure White and French Linen. Man, I am in love with this stuff! It adheres to any surface- even marble!- with no trouble. Just a quick word about fire safety: we don't use our fireplace, so I wasn't worried about whether or not it was flammable, but be sure to check your paint if you have an active fireplace.
3. Brush your base coat onto the surround. I used Pure White and it took 2 coats to get even coverage. I recruited my hubs to do this part, since, let's be honest, painting trim is not my strong suit and I'll take help when I can get it!
4. Place your stencil in the upper corner of the surround. Adjust the stencil sheet and check to make sure it's level, then tape it in place with painters tape. If you want to use a spray adhesive (which I didn't), spray it on the back of the stencil and place it down evenly. I highly recommend using the adhesive for this job, because it took me a loooong time to get clean lines without it. (We have an awesome tutorial on stenciling must-haves if you need help with this!)
5. Begin stenciling. The trick to stenciling without any bleeding is to off-load your brush properly. After dipping into the paint, dab it onto absorbant paper towels, or cardboard until it there is very little paint on the brush. Both my stencil (Beehive Furniture Stencil) and brush are from Royal Design Studio, and they are excellent quality, which makes the job go much smoother.
I had to do two to three coats for every stencil to get the coverage I was looking for. Words can not express the excitement of pulling back that very first stencil. Go ahead- try it and tell me that's not true.
Once the paint is dry, realign the stencil, level it and keep on moving! You might want to turn on some music, because you'll be doing this for a while.: )
At the end of the first night, here's what I had accomplished. Ugh. I saved the hard parts for last. Yippee!
6, Cut your stencil to fit the corners and edges. Oh, this part is so hard, because as I was cutting my stencil, I was envisioning all the projects I could do with it go right down the drain. But, it's absolutely crucial to cut the stencil if you want clean, crisp lines all the way around.
7. Touch up any paint bleeds with a small fine-tipped paint brush…or toothpick, in my case. No matter how good you are at stenciling, there will always be some bleeding. It's easy to touch it up with the base paint color and a steady hand. No one will be the wiser!
8. Finally, wax it and you're done! You'll want to add some kind of protective finish, and I used Annie Sloan soft wax, which was formulated to work with chalk paint. After all that hard work, you'll want a force field surrounding this thing, but wax will have to do.
Step back, grab a drink and enjoy your pretty new fireplace surround!
I love love love it, and am already planning a room makeover based on this fireplace!
If you want a cheap project that will instantly give your room a facelift, this one is for you. Showstopping material, folks! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In other news, if you follow us on facebook (if you don't, you totally should) you know that I finally entered the year 2012 and have a new HTC OneX smartphone. This thing is amazing and I can't wait to share with you how it has made my life soooo much easier, but for now I'm totally loving Instagram, and would be thrilled if you decided to follow me!
Monica has been on Instagram for quite a while now, but if you don't already follow her, add her to your list too!
We'll give you lots of sneak peeks at our current projects, as well as fun insights into our daily lives and what makes us tick. We promise.: )
Thank you all for your awesome response to our SuperFab Room Redesign! We were thrilled with how it all turned out, (and thankfully, so were the homeowners!), but we realize that the houndstooth stencil from Royal Design Studio totally steals the show! Our favorite thing about this wall is the modern color scheme paired with the very classic houndstooth pattern. However, it's one thing to tackle an entire accent wall with a stencil, but it's another whole thing to do it with multiple colors! There's quite a saga behind this wall, and we learned some really helpful things about how to stencil well that we thought we'd pass along to you. When you DIY, it's all about learning as you go, right?
But first, let's talk about these gorgeous colors. When Monica and I met up at Home Depot, these paint colors literally jumped out at us and we picked them within five minutes of getting there. Gotta love when that happens. Of course, no one does it better than Martha Stewart, and these colors are all from her paint line. So without further ado, here are the beauties by name:
Now, back to the saga. We planned this stenciling project like any other; chose the order of the colors, picked our starting point, leveled the stencil and got to work. The only problem is that we did NOT have the right supplies. We started with only two brushes (for 4 paint colors!) and four jars of paint samples, which, unbeknownst to us, contain no binding agents so they don't work for stenciling. Each individual"tooth" took three coats of paint! And after four hours (no joke!) this is how much we had finished:
(Sorry, bad phone photo!) Ugh! So frustrating! We took a break to kick ourselves for starting this project, and then reevaluated our situation. We estimated at least another 8 hours of work, which scared us silly. We are all about DIYing as much as possible, but we can also recognize when we are in over our heads, so we called in the big guns to help us out.
We had the good fortune of meeting Bernadette of The Faux Pro, Inc. through this blog, and boy, were we happy we did! Bernie specializes in stenciling (she's friends with Melanie from RDS), faux finishes of every kind and is truly a talent! Her work has been featured on HGTV and has an amazing portfolio of work on her site. She was generous enough to come help us out, and brought her assistant, Mary along, too. They let me tag along and watch what they do, and gave us loads of tips for making the process go smoother. And today we get to share those with you. Woohoo! 1. Gather the Right Supplies:
1- Five in One Tool: Comes in handy for all sorts of jobs like opening paint cans, cleaning rollers etc. 2- Frog Tape: Bernie swears by Frog Tape because it doesn't pull the paint off the walls. 3- Paint brushes, angled brushes, stenciling brushes: 4- Razor: 5- Detail brushes: Mary's entire job was to follow Bernie and touch up any bleeding. The result is an unbelieveably crisp finish! 6- Scissors: Bernie uses these to cut the stencil as needed along the ceiling and corners, instead of trying to bend the stencil. 7- Foam Rollers: Most of the time, Bernie uses a roller to stencil, especially because Mary can touch up any bleeds. 8- Spray Adhesive (not pictured): this is a must! We learned this the hard way.
9- Simple Green: This cleaner is the best for keeping your stencil like new so that you can use it over and over again, but she uses it for absolutely everything!
10- The Quality Masker: I have never seen anything like this, but it works magic! You attach the tape, along with brown paper to the masker and run it along the baseboard or ceiling. As you roll it out, the tape adheres to the brown paper creating a barrier. It takes literally half the time as taping out the edges by hand. You can find them at any paint store.
2. Set-up a Stenciling Station Before ever starting, Bernie finds a place to set up her work station. She lays out a drop cloth, covers it with a trash bag, then a towel and then the stencil. In between every set, she wipes the stencil clean and dries it with the towel. This ensures that you don't get paint on the carpet, but also that no paint remains on the stencil and gets on the wall. She keeps a hair dryer close by, if she wants to hurry the process along.
3. Use the Right Method If you're using a stenciling brush, make sure to blot it on something very absorbant, like paper towels or cardboard. Here's the most important tip I learned that day: Brush from the outside of the stencil in towards the center. Basically, brushing away from the edge lessens the likelihood of bleeding, which saves you tons of time!
Hopefully, this helps you out a bit, like it did for us. A big thank you to Bernie and Mary for pitching in with our project. If you have a project in mind, we totally recommend that you contact them! The end result of this saga is an amazing focal wall that makes us so proud! Have you ever gotten in too deep with a project? Do share!
