My husband was completely baffled when I told him I was going to stencil our guest room/office closet. "Why?" he asks me. "Because when I walk in there, it will make me smile". That's what it's all about. It's the little things for me. If going into a closet that is nothing more than a glorified catch-all (which it is, since we lack storage in this house) can make me happy, what could be better?!
Ta Da!
Are you smiling yet? Or even better, did it make you gasp?! (I love coming upon something that makes me gasp or say "ooooh"...those are the best kind of blog finds)
I know I gave you a little glimpse of the closet when I finished up the office, but I've been so looking forward to showing the whole thing to you.
This was my first large project with stencils. I used the Casablanca Trellis Moroccan from Royal Designs Studio. I got it when they had a 1/2 price Sunday sale for that specific stencil in March. Since we were in Oklahoma at the time, I had it shipped to my sister in Washington and then we drove it back with us to Alaska (I will do nearly anything to avoid those ridiculous shipping costs...I think they wanted $29 more to get it all the way here).
I didn't get a good before picture, but just imagine builder grade white with wire shelves. I was going to try and just paint the stencil in beige to entirely avoid painting the walls, but once I got going I realized the walls were just too dirty and dingy to get a good outcome. I painted the walls with the beige I had on hand and then used my SW Aria Ivory for the stencil (the office walls are Aria Ivory also, so the closet really compliments the room)
It took about 1 1/2 hours to paint the base coat and then the stencil took another 5 hours to complete.
Overall, this went very smoothly. I had to touch up the corners and the base by hand, but with the design style, it wasn't too hard (it's not perfect, but it's fine, especially for a closet)
In this corner, I didn't finish the whole design because
the way the sides were connecting made it appear too busy. Besides,
once the shelves go in, you don't notice those types of details.
The hardest part of this was rehanging the stupid wire shelves (my husband kindly helped me so I wouldn't freak out, as I'm so prone to do when frustrated).
In the end, it was all worth it.
This closet holds my decorating projects and craft tools as well as my boys' dress clothes since they don't have a closet in their room.
I used the aviary prints that used to be in the kids bathroom. They fit in perfectly here, and elevate the space to feel like a true room.
I keep my photo albums on the floor. These are just
our dating, new marriage and the first 2 years of our oldest sons life...all
the rest of our pictures are sitting on my computer and I desperately
need to print and catalog them.
That will be a huge project, ugh. I wish
I liked scrapbooking.
I've used a folding leaf table to have a landing place for my messes
I'm loving the new tool caddy I snagged from Decor Steals.
Yards of fabric...for those someday sewing projects
My childhood chair sits up in left hand corner. You can see I
opted not to stencil the doorway wall. It was just too small and would have added unnecessary stress with little reward.
These beer jugs are destined for something great, I just have to figure out what.
I hope you've enjoyed seeing my closet. It's pretty fun decorating something unexpected.
There is no end the ways you could use stencils. My Master Bedroom closet is next on the stencil project list, so stay tuned :)
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