Yes this is a cake website… buttttt I really really love home decor! My last post about my little one’s new nursery inspired me to write this post about my most recent home DIY!

I needed a change! Or nesting, whatever you want to call it! Baby is due on Saturday (it’s Wednesday) we’ve already had one false alarm and I needed a project to get me through the week.

I was reading one of my favourite magazines, Style at Home and fell in LOVE with a gorgeous wall paper from Ronald Redding – Sculpted Surfaces III – Tracery, from the March 2015 issue in a kitchen design by Ali Budd.  It’s just gorgeous. But alas, it looks like black and white, but it’s actually a beautiful teal colour on cream. I was set to order it but REALLY wanted it in black and white, no such luck.

And in my urgent and impatient state I decided, why not just make it myself? Yes. I am slightly out of my mind.

I took a better look at the pattern and figured out it’s sequence. There are FOUR shapes here in the pattern below, they just repeat and some flip upside down to create symmetry.

I will hopefully outline HOW to create your own stencil for this project. You can accomplish this with paint, but I chose to go with a… (wait for it…) sharpie!! Yup. I knew it would give me a clean crisp thin line, the original design is thicker, but I was ok with something a little simpler.

You will need:

• Wax/Parchment Paper
• Heavy Cardboard
• Thinner Cardboard that has an easy flex to it
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Design to go from – inspiration
• Sharpie x 2-3(in desired colour) or thin brush and paint of choice
• chalk line – optional
• level – as needed

First take a good hard look at your design. Can you sketch it out to get an idea of how it works? My inspiration design I realized had 4 shapes to it, that repeated and overlapped.

Once I figured out what they looked like and how they played on eachother.

Here’s my sketch to figure out what they looked like.

I took my wax paper (sorry I didn’t take a picture of this step) and drew out a rough idea of what my shape would be. I used a ruler where I could to make my edges neat.

The best tip I have is to draw your shape and then fold it into quarters. Make sure the quarter of the shape that’s facing you is your most favourite, in terms of precision and lines. Firm up your lines with a ruler if necessary and cut out that quarter, unfold and you should have a perfectly symmetrical shape in your parchment paper.

Use that first shape to guide and draw your other shapes, always looking back at your inspiration pattern to make sure that the shapes are relevant in size to one another. I did this with all four shapes, then I trimmed where necessary. This is the part you really want to spend time on because they will be your pattern makers for later!

When happy with your flimsy little shapes, trace them onto both your heavy & flexible cardboard. I found it helpful to have 2 of each shape (one on heavy and one on flexible). This was because I was working in a bay window area with lots and lots of corners and curves and window frames to work around . The heavy cardboard is the best for stenciling and I used it whenever I could on flat surfaces. It’s easier to hold in place, doesn’t move and gives the best outcome. But the flexible shape is indispensible! You NEED to make them as well even if you’re working on a flat wall and come to a corner you need to be able to easily bend your shape so you can stencil around it and not make a mess.

I also added an arrow to my shapes as (just in case) I wanted to make sure I used them in the same direction each time. The only exception was the little diamond shaped piece at the top which flipped directions in the pattern so it didn’t matter. (Not pictured are my second set of designs which were on the flexible cardboard, but they’re exactly the same!)

Once you’ve finished making your stencils you’re ready to start!

Here’s a couple options: Go right to it with the sharpie to the wall – yes, it’s a bit scary -but then you only have to do it once, rather than pencil it all in and then sharpie over it. Plus there’s no erasing to do after (YAHOO!) BUT YOU MUST PRACTICE FIRST!!! Find something to practice on and make sure you’re confident with your pattern!

Or you can be very diligent and stencil the whole thing in pencil first and go over top. I will admit, that I did a half row with the pencil to make sure I had the right idea,  and that my spacing was ok before I painted my kitchen and went at it with the sharpie.

Spacing! So here’s where I learned a little lesson. I had my pattern figured out, but what I didn’t pay as much attention to when I started was that the original was much much tighter together than what I created. It didn’t change it a whole lot, and I liked it anyways, so I kept going, but in hindsight I maybe should have brought the vertical pattern in a little closer together. Do a couple test runs on something to see what you like best!

READY????

Now it’s time! If you do make a mistake, and are working with sharpie, keep a bottle of rubbing alcohol close by with a paper towel. You CAN take it off the wall, but if you leave it on too long and scrub too hard you might take some paint off as well, so use some elbowgrease but be warned!!

You can either make a plumb line (a vertical line that is level from the floor to ceiling) with chalk, or with a level or measure as you go. Or you can eyeball it…. y’know… if you’re anxious to get going and figure it’ll just work out 😉 not sure who would be crazy enough to do that, but ahem… it did work out 😉

This (above) was my first sketch to see if I liked everything. Note! This was before I painted my kitchen (Benjamin Moore  – Cloud White).  I did it before for two reasons.

1) I wanted to test it out on the actual wall I was using  in pencil and marker

2) I wanted to see how paint went over the sharpie (because let’s face it in 2 years I’ll do something different)

Results? Paint I used a primer/paint combo – worked perfectly over the sharpie marker and I was happy with my design!

Please excuse the horrible late night photos…. but this was the REAL thing on my freshly painted walls!

Now it’s time! If you do make a mistake, and are working with sharpie, keep a bottle of rubbing alcohol close by with a paper towel. You CAN take it off the wall, but if you leave it on too long and scrub too hard you might take some paint off as well, so use some elbowgrease but be warned!!

You can either make a plumb line (a vertical line that is level from the floor to ceiling) with chalk, or with a level or measure as you go. Or you can eyeball it…. y’know… if you’re anxious to get going and figure it’ll just work out 😉 not sure who would be crazy enough to do that, but ahem… it did work out 😉

               
I used the wall edge as my guide and put my first shape up and traced around it. Success. Then I went up and put my second shape above.

Tip! I found leaving a little more of a space between my shapes helpful, as the sharpie then had room to make a neat point, rather than butting into the line I had previously made because of the thickness of the cardboard. Clear as mud? Yup. thought so, try it out first and you’ll see what I mean.

Repeat with the third and fourth shape (or however many you have from your pattern).  Keep going!! Follow your base line up the wall to keep everything neat and lined up.  FREQUENTLY stop and step back to make sure you’re continuing on a straight line. Every pattern you make will be a little different in terms of whether it’s best to work across or up and down. You’ll get a hang of what works best for your design.

Tip! Thankfully my pattern had a lot of clues or tricks to make sure I was lining things up properly. Because of all the points on my shapes I could “eye-ball” to make sure that points of the new shape I was about to trace, lined up with the pre-exisiting shape that I had just traced on. This always gave me a point of reference to go back to and make sure it was going to be as straight as possible. As you get used to looking at your pattern, you will see little clues that will help you keep things in line (haha, pun intended).  Your pattern might need 90degree angles when certain shapes meet, that will stick out to you when you put the next shape over top.  Keep focused on these keys and you’ll have a fabulous geometric pattern that doesn’t make you think your room is tilted!

Keep going… and going.. and going. Always step back check on your work, take some breaks and make sure you’re happy with the progress!

I figured out that the square footage I covered was approx 70 sq’ and I believe it took me about 6 hours in total (broken up over two days) to complete. Not bad for 2 Sharpies ($4??) and a can of paint!!

The image below was my starting point, the wall edge to the far left was the “plumb line” that I used to start me off.

I did the first three vertical lines, then went over the window, down to the right by the door and under the window. I felt that was the easiest way to “line it up”…

(see that bottle of rubbing alcohol on the window sill? Just in case 😉 )

Hope you have fun and enjoy your new space!!!

Thanks for reading!!!! Good luck and let me know how it goes!

Christina =)

ps. confession time!!!
alright… there is actually an error in my pattern which I made at the VERY END of my work, and it’s in the image above…. can you spot it??