Stencil the day away

This week despite not feeling all together well I decided to paint my bathroom. Well, not just paint but stencil my bathroom. I love painting a bathroom because in the course of a day or two you can completely change an entire room. Inspired by Emily's office over at Jones Design Co. I decided I would paint all my troubles away and make my bathroom a little more interesting too.

First I painted the top half of the walls with

 Restoration Hardware Silver Sage

I love this color and I got a gallon for $4 when our RH (which was the original RH) went out of business a while back. I was happy about the price but sad to see the original RH close :(

Then I made my cardboard stencil and began tracing my pattern on the walls

Thank goodness I had NPR and Pandora to keep me entertained!

Next with my favorite shade of white 

Ace Royal in New canvas

I began painting over my penciled design with a 1/4" paint brush

Several sessions and some pretty serious hand deformations later and I had gone all around the room

The lower half of the walls are now painted white and awaiting trim to separate the 2 colors

Now I could have used a real stencil and my lines would be perfect but I much prefer the hand painted look even if it does get a little wonky in a few places. In this pic you can see a sample of the trim I want to put all around the room. The trim is a job for the Mr. and I've been warned that it is a low priority so it may be a while before he gets around to it. 

Overall the room is much brighter and much more fun! I'll post a few more pics after I get the whole room cleaned up and back together.

I hope you all have a great fall weekend!

& crisp fall mornings

Shut the front door...

Last week while driving up to my house I decided I'd had enough. My deep red door was bringing me down and had to go. Now, don't get me wrong, I love a classic red door, but I was just tired of seeing red everytime I walked through my door.

The door had been painted by the previous owners and could have used a few more coats when they did it. Combine that with the fact that it was dingy and scratched up it was neigh time for a fresh coat. So out came the swatches and the strange looks from the neighbors as I sat on the curb staring at my front door covered in little squares of color.

 In the end I went with  Bennie Moore's Mountain Laurel.

Here's my handy tip for keeping the rim of your paint can tidy while you paint

Then you can just dip and wipe on the band instead of the edge!

2 coats later I had a fresh and fun new door. I need to do a bit of plant trimming/re-arranging out here, but the color sure is fun!

I love the way the color goes with the greige walls and charcoal trim, plus it really makes the hardware pop. 

Honestly the color did look a bit darker on the paint chip and I would have liked to have it be a bit darker but      

I am really happy with the color as it is. I was a bit worried what my older neighbors would say, but just a few days ago I got a phone call from one of them just to tell me how much they loved the new color! You know you live in a boring quiet neighborhood when your door is the topic of neighborly conversation!

& Picky Neighbors!