Faux Wallpaper Reveal...Finally!

Boy oh boy was this truly a labor of love!!

What I "thought" would be a fun and "quick" Friday night project, lasted over a week!

After a few arguments, shoulder aches and neck kinks, here's how it turned out!

It began with the design that the hubby produced for me using CAD. He printed it out, I cut it out, and made a stencil with a piece of cardboard.

We wanted the outcome to be subtle, so we opted to use the same shade that we had painted the wall but in a high-gloss.

Unfortunately, since we had used Behr's Premium Plus Ultra Paint and Primer in One in Burnished Clay, we were dismayed to find out this line does not carry a high gloss formula. They only go up to a semi-gloss. Boo!

So we scoped out the other brands that did carry high-gloss formulas and we found an almost perfect match in Glidden's Clay Bisque.

With a set of $1.50 artist brushes from Daiso and a plastic cup of paint, we were ready to go.

Jay had us mark the center line of the wall and taped it off as our starting point. Well, this pic was taken after he had stenciled the entire wall and I started painting already, but you get the point.

So, let me digress for a bit. Here's a pic that the hubby took of me starting to stencil the wall, before he took over.

Big mistake! Meaning, me stenciling was a BIG mistake!

Was it the wall or was it me or was it the stencil? I could not get it straight! I used a level and still, my stenciling came out crooked!

You can imagine the hubby's face when he saw my two rows of catastrophic stenciling. He pulled out the big eraser and took over. We put in the taped center line and a few hours later ended up with a perfectly symmetrical stenciled wall!

Then he attempted to paint and that's when I pulled the brushes from him and took over!

I painted for a few hours and then went out with my girls. The next day painted a few hours and then went to the gun range. And then I would paint for 2 hours every night after work...

Jay and I both learned a valuable lesson with this project. He's great at stenciling and I am great at painting! Now we both know our roles and as we work together on another wall, we can avoid those wasted hours of crooked stenciling, erasing, and needless arguing!