Wall Stencils

I had a sweet friend e-mail me over the weekend to tell me how much she liked the wallpaper I had in my foyer.  When I told her it wasn’t wallpaper, she couldn’t believe it!  I wish I could have taken a picture of all the blank stares I got when I told people I was planning to stencil my foyer.
When I came across this picture in Traditional Home, I knew I wanted the same look.  It’s from my favorite designer again, Tobi Fairley. 

I love the pattern and the neutrality of the black and white wallpaper, but I’m sure that it is out of my price range.  So, when I was at Hobby Lobby one day, I found this all over wall stencil:

I immediately thought of the wallpaper in Tobi’s foyer.  I liked the graphic-damasky feel of the stencil pattern and I thought if painted it in black and white, it would do the trick.  Plus, it was half-off, a sign no doubt!
It took an abundance of patience, but I love the way it turn out.  Here’s the transition…
Note:  It’s not your eyes, you do not need glasses.  I took the pictures on my phone, so they are a little fuzzy, sorry!
    

I originally was planning to paint this cabinet black and white like the inspiration photo.  But in the end, I just couldn’t bring myself to go all black and white.  The dining room and crap future craft room  on each side of the foyer were still blank slates.  I love to use inspiration photos to get my juices flowing, but I think you should add your own style to the final design.  No one likes a copy cat, just ask my girls!  So, I chose Persimmon Red, by Martha Stewart.  It’s one that she offers color samples of and it only took one container and cost less that $5.




Here it is all finished!  The chest is a true coral color although it looks a little pink here.  I love that the pattern on the walls is neutral enough that if I ever wanted to switch up the furniture piece, I could do so easily. 
If I had one tip for doing this project it would be to buy 2 stencils.  It will make the project go much faster! 













 BTW, the hubs picked this up on the side of the road the other day. 



He’s planning on using it for storage in his shop, but all I could see in front of me was the means to this…

Isn’t it lovely!  Don’t you think he should hand it over?! 
Katie