Stenciled Ceiling

I have been so excited to share this project with you!!! I loved my bedroom before but now I LOVE love it :)

I stenciled a damask pattern on the entire ceiling!!! Why should walls have all the fun???

I wanted to show you a bunch of the after shots first but if you keep going you will see the before and a tutorial on how I did it. I was loosing daylight fast when I took these pictures. I was in a big FAT hurry and I didn't really pay attention to the setting on my camera or the angle of the shots. I wish they were a tiny bit more clear. My paisley pillow that I hand painted is hard to see. You can get a better look at that HERE.
And more bedroom pictures HERE.

I also made a chandelier. I just couldn't put that ugly ceiling fan back up after the ceiling got a gorgeous makeover! I will have a tutorial showing how I made it on Wednesday.

Okay, here is the before. I know you all know what a white ceiling looks like, but I needed a before so that the after would be more dramatic :) So here you go.

BEFORE

AFTER

Cutting Edge Stencils sent me a stencil of my choice to review. They also sent me a foam roller. I have stenciled a fair share in the past so I thought I was pretty familiar with stencils. I was pleasantly surprised to see that theirs was extra thick. And  the stencil was really large which helps when you are painting a big area.

Because I was doing my ceiling and I had gravity working against me, I used a spray adhesive on the back of the stencil along with painters tape.

I started in the corner above my door so that if I messed up, no one would really notice  when they looked in my room. The 2 things you need to remember are a) don't overload your roller with paint! b) don't push too hard. Both of these things will cause the paint to bleed under the stencil. If you are nervous, practice on cardboard or a garage wall. I found that I had to roll in all directions to get paint into the nooks and crannies. The first one I did 2 coats of paint. It was nice and even but I decided I like the look of one coat of paint better. It looked like fabric.

I know you are lovin' the shower cap. I was totally channelling my inner lunch lady. I knew when I saved the free shower cap from my last hotel stay I could use it for something. Not a speck of paint in my hair!

The stencils have these points ( shown by arrows). When you go to paint the next row, you line up the stencil to these points and it keeps everything straight. Pretty genius if you ask me.

 

Okay, now for the low down. Was this project easy? Yes. Was this project time consuming? Yes. I have four kids so that equals about 49 million interruptions. Because I was doing this on the ceiling I couldn't just peel it off then move it in place and immediately start on the next one. I had to wait for the paint to dry on the stencil (5-10 minutes) before I could place it again. Why? Because I had to press on the stencil to get it to stick to the ceiling. Not fun when it is all wet. But it wasn't too big of a deal. I would stick it up, paint it, take it down, and then go do something else for a bit. Change the laundry to the dryer, unload the dishwasher, play Go Fish with my 3 year old (you get the idea). Then I would run down and do another one. So in total, it took four days.  

IF I had been doing a wall like a normal person, it would have been MUCH faster. And IF I didn't have any children at home to interrupt it would have been much, much faster.

Overall it was TOTALLY worth it! I have no idea how I lived with a white ceiling before. And I have plans to use this same stencil upstairs in my hall. I am thinking cream and chocolate brown. . .


On Wednesday I will show you how I made this chandelier!!!