Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy

A few weeks ago, as I was walking through Micheal's, I happened upon a stencil set that had a bunch of fun geometric patterns. It was $16.99, so a bit of a splurge (especially for a teacher in the summer!) but my mind started filling up with all of the projects that I could use the stencil for. I kid you not, that last week as I enjoyed my time at Camp Shady I was devising plans for the different stencils.

As you can imagine, I didn't wait long to put them to use when we got home yesterday. It's been a while since I have updated or changed the large photo wall in our living room. A few of the photos on the wall are just matted on plain white scrapbook paper, so I figured I could quickly update one of them using the stencil.

I grabbed a new white sheet of paper and cut it to the size of the frame I was going to update. Then I went down to survey all of the paint in the basement and decided to use one of the colors from the striped TV wall. By using a color that's already represented in the room, I was adding some continuity to the space. Plus it was free - nothing wrong with that!

I put out a newspaper on the kitchen counter and set up my stencil over the white paper. I just used masking tape to keep the stencil in place because I didn't mind if the pattern was not perfect. You can also use spray adhesive to keep a stencil from moving during a project.

  Using a small foam brush, I painted over the stencil. I had to move the stencil a few times until the page was covered. Since it was a fairly small frame (8 by 8, maybe?) it didn't take very long at all. Once I finished the page, I was left with an all-over design.

Since it was a thin layer of paint, it dried pretty quickly. I waited about 45 minutes and then taped my picture on top and put it all back in the frame. The picture is actually one that Bill and I took on our honeymoon. Its now a tradition for us to take a picture like this every year on our anniversary.

Once it was all framed up, I popped the frame back into its place on the photo wall. Instant update!

This was a very subtle way to add a pattern into the space. I can't wait to use other designs from the stencil in other parts of the house. It'll be fun to update things with both color and pattern.

What have you been up to lately? Any quick updates around your house?

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen

P.S. Did you follow the blog yet? Its so quick and easy to do!


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