Treasure Hunt - Wallpaper

I think I shed tears the first time I saw this beautiful wallpaper installed on HGTV. I fell in love and vowed I would have it in my next house.

I decided the dining room would be the lucky reciepient of the gorgeous wallpaper. The wallpaper is made by F. Schumacher and the color I am in love with is silver. I found a place online "Wallpapers to go" that I could order it from. Wallpaper is very expensive so I figured to save money I would only do wallpaper on the top 3 feet of the walls then a beautiful white wainscoting below. So I did the math and the wallpaper came to $900. OUCH! But I was determined, I didn't care if it took me 5 years to save the money that is what I was going to do. Then fate smiled down on me. I was even hunting for a treasure - one was placed in my lap! I happened on to a website for Cutting Edge Stencils.

I have seen stencils before but usually they are never as nice as wallpaper - I could not believe what a great match this was to the wallpaper I loved. And it is only $42!!!!!!!! Are you kidding me!!!!! I would have bought it for $100 and still been thrilled. This meant I could do my dining room now instead of 5 years from now. The great thing too is that the stencil is large - large enough that I only had to use it once and just move left across the walls with it. First I had to find a good silver paint. I found that Martha Stewart has a metallic line at Home depot. I went with "tin" - it is $19 for a quart. Then I decided I wanted the white areas of the stencil to be a bit brighter and have a bit of sheen so I bought the same color of paint that is already on the walls had it lightened 50% and did it in semi-gloss. I put the semi-gloss white on the walls first (it was very quick and easy since it only needed one coat and I didn't really have to get a perfect line against the celling. I let that dry for a day then started to stencil! You want to use very little paint when stenciling so that it doesn't bleed. Because of this the silver needed a few coats to cover the white. So the stencil once taped in place would get a coat of silver, wait a few minutes before another coat of silver, wait a few minutes then one quick last coat, Then I could move the stencil to the next spot. Basically it took some time but I was able to get things done around the house while stenciling every few minutes.

So here is the result! Stay tuned and at some later point we'll add the wainscoting for the finishing touch.

I also had a thought about stencils on ikea roller shades. I saw an episode on HGTV with Candace Olson where she used these gorgeous roller shades from deliashades.com. I checked out the price and about had a heart attack - with Ikea's cheap roller shades and a cute stencil you could make a really good look-a-like.

I think I am addicted now. I have been thinking I could use this stencil on some fabric too (Schumacher sells the trellis pattern in fabric that is very expensive and beautiful as well).

Here are a couple additional stencil websites I have found (royaldesignstudio.com, oliveleafstencils.com). I'll definitely be using another one somewhere else in my house!