This post is sponsored by Cutting Edge Stencils. All views and opinions shared in this post are my own.
I love keeping our home decor minimal…especially in our kids’ rooms. Walls can often look cluttered with too much wall art. Stencils are a great way to add dimension to a wall and are an excellent alternative to the traditional hanging wall art.
When I was planning the nursery, I knew that I wanted to add a special touch to the wall where the crib would be sitting. After many Pinterest searches, I settled on a stencil. I was thrilled when I found out I would have the opportunity to test out the Hand Drawn Chevron stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils!
I have used stencils in the past, but have never been brave enough to stencil a wall. Why I decided a weekend renovation was the perfect time to test out a wall stencil, I will never know. I can’t tell you how thankful I am that I went for it! I was nervous that it would be time consuming and messy, but that was not the case at all!
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The Stencil and Stencil Essentials Kit
Cutting Edge Stencils sent me both the Hand Drawn Chevron stencil and Stencil Essentials Kit. There were two stencils included with the Hand Drawn Chevron stencil, one large stencil and one top edge stencil. The main stencil is meant to be used to cover the majority of the wall. The smaller stencil, which is called a top edge stencil, it meant to fill in all of the spaces that the large stencil did not cover.
Included in the Stencil Essentials Kit was a clip-on stencil level, foam roller and circular paint brush. This kit was a huge help when applying the stencil! First of all, it is super important to ensure that the level is straight before you begin. If you have a large wall, it will be rather obvious once you are done if the stencil is not level.
Having both the foam roller and paint brush on hand was very helpful! The foam roller is great for the large stencil. It makes the application much quicker. I attempted to use the roller on the top edge stencil and quickly realized that it was much easier just use the paint brush. I was very close to painting over the edge of the top edge stencil with the roller many times.
Stencil the Main Wall
I began by using the large stencil. I placed it slightly in from the edges, I planned to go back and fill those parts in at the end. The large stencil had four full columns and two additional marks. These marks allowed me to position the stencil for the next application.
Along with aligning the lines from the previous stencil, I also needed to level the stencil. Once you clip the level on to the stencil, you don’t have to mess with it again. You can clip the level to the top or the bottom of the stencil. I chose to clip it to the bottom. I used the piece of tape at the top of the stencil to hold the stencil in place while I made sure it was level.
When I made sure the stencil was nice and level, I pressed the other pieces of tape to the wall to make sure the stencil was secure.
I used several pieces of painters tape around the edges of the stencil to hold it in place. It is important to painters tape, because other tapes might pull paint off of the wall.
Since I was just stenciling the top portion of the wall above my board and batten wall, I only needed to do one row with the large stencil. If you are doing a full wall, you will continue working either up or down the wall until just the edges remain.
I tried a few different techniques for applying the paint. With the large stencil, I settled on doing two light coats of paint using the foam roller. I poured the paint in a tray and rolled off most of the paint before I applied it on the wall. I was afraid that it might bleed if I applied too much paint at once. At times, I also found it helpful to apply a slight amount of pressure near the spots I was painting.
In order to keep my application even, I worked in columns. I made sure to finish one column before moving on to the next. I also did one coat over the entire stencil before applying the second coat.
Fill in around the Edges
After I was done with the large stencil, I used the top edge stencil to fill in the edges. The top edge stencil had partial hash marks to allow me to finish with a straight line.
Once I got the hang of using the top edge stencil, it was super quick to finish off the wall. I discovered that it was easiest if I did two columns at a time and skipped the next two. I did this across the wall, which gave the paint enough time to dry before I went back to fill in the remaining gaps.
The Finished Product
The Hand Drawn Chevron stencil by Cutting Edge Stencils was the perfect addition to this wall! I absolutely love the dimension it added. This is a large wall and it would have taken lots of wall art to fill it.
I’m so glad I decided to give stenciling a try! It was an easy and affordable way to finish off this room. Now I need to find another wall to stencil…
I’ll be sharing the final nursery reveal on the blog soon. For now, here’s all of the details on how I installed this affordable modern board and batten wall. Stay tuned for a look at the other side of the room!
