Home Improvement: Stenciling an Accent Wall at Rebecca Illsley’s Home

I had the privilege of helping a friend (and my hair dresser) with an accent wall in her home a few weekends ago.

Rebecca chose the French Floral Damask wall stencil from Royal Designs for me to use.

The stenciling process was incredibly easy with the help of instructional videos online, but there were three basic steps that really helped us complete this project successfully.

Type of design: Because we used an irregular design matching up the pattern was very easy (and didn’t have to be perfect). If we had used a geometric pattern or similar I would have been pulling my hair out. Painting perfection is not one of my strong points.

Type of paint and roller: A semi-gloss paint was used as the stencil paint over a base coat of flat paint. The base coat of flat paint quickly absorbed the semi-gloss stencil paint making the process go very quickly. Using a sponge roller with very little paint makes the process go quickly with not a lot of excess paint on the stencil (because lots of paint on the stencil smears on the wall as you go).

Paint color selection: We chose to use two tone application. Because there was not a lot of contrast between the two colors, we were able to hide our “oops” very easily.

Using a sponge roller and a 8 ft ladder, my sister Nancee Lee and I completed the whole wall in about 4 hrs start to finish.

I didn’t have to start in the middle of the wall but I wanted to make sure the pattern was centered.

We used painter’s tape to hold the stencil in place while we rolled the paint on.

Stenciling near electrical outlets can be tricky but not impossible. Just go slow and paint around the outlet without painting over it.

Roll slowly as you get close to the trim. Using a dry roller is especially important here because you don’t want any drips!

Nancee Lee touched up the edges near the trim with q-tip and extra paint.

Tada!

The semi-gloss paint really sets off the design against the flat paint. It’s a HUGE impression for very little money, especially in comparison with the price of wall paper.