99 Playroom Painting Project - We Stenciled Again!

The last time I popped in with a playroom update, I shared that I decided to update the color.  Again.  And part of the reason was to get rid of the too blue feeling and another reason because of a little project I had up our sleeves.  So the color went from Behr's Prelude to Behr's Reflecting Pool:

For about two plus years now I have wanted to do a birch tree wall treatment in our playroom.  Two years!  And now that everyone and their mom has done it, I thought I would be the last to hop on the birch tree train.  What took me so long?  It was a matter of figuring out how to make it work.  Was I going to free hand it?  Use a projector?  Use a stencil?  What colors would I use?  What wall would I put it on?  Oh my goodness do I even have the time for such a project?

Why birch trees?  Well, I think they bring an earthy feeling to the space.  Bring some outdoors in.  They feel masculine to me as well, perfect for three little {but growing} boys.  I have seen them done in enough spaces that I knew I would love them in our own home.

So, after thinking about the options; wallpaper being too expensive, free handing it being too time consuming {not to mention I am a smidge of a perfectionist and I know I couldn't free hand anything I would love}, which left me to settle on a stencil.  I selected this one from Cutting Edge Stencils:

The wall that we selected wasn't all that large, so my hopes were that I could whip out this project in an afternoon, with the help of the hubs of course.  We had already stenciled a wall in the dressing room, so we figured we already knew what we were in for, and past the initial stenciling learning curve.  In fact, we followed the exact same process this time around.

We started out with the blank wall, and taped off the edges:

I decided to use two paint trays this time around.  Since stencils shouldn't be used with too much paint {to avoid the paint from seeping behind the stencil}, the second tray was basically the last place the roller would touch before heading to the wall, just to be sure all excess paint was removed.

And I can't stress enough the importance of spray adhesive.  It makes for a sticky mess, but it really helps keeping the stencil flush against the wall while rolling, giving much crisper lines.

We started by using a level and spray adhesive combined with painters tape, and just picked a random spot center of the wall to begin.

We initially started rolling with a small foam roller, per the instructions.  However, I quickly learned that this wasn't going to work for this specific project.  I was using a dark teally blue {Behr's Seven Seas - the same color on the back of the recently painted entertainment center} and because it was so dark, it would either require good coverage the first time around or two coats.  Two coats and a stencil weren't going to work for me, so we switched to a flat wall surface roller instead, and it worked much better.

Even though we went against the rules to use a large flat wall roller, because we were good about making sure it wasn't too covered in paint, we still managed nice crisp lines.

The real beauty about this project, especially for picky perfectionist types, is that with nature and birch trees, no perfection is required!  A little blotch here or a mistake there, eh, who would ever notice?

Because the stencil goes over itself in spots, we just used a hair dryer to try and cure the paint a bit before moving on to the next section....

Almost done!

We decided to be crazy pants people and use a giant stencil around a door.  This caused the stencil to fall on my head a few times.  I had blue paint in my hair for days.  And I am not going to lie, that part was not fun, at all.  In fact, by the time we were done, the hubs said that next time I should just do the wallpaper...

But in the end, I love how it turned out, making for a nice and fun before:

And after:

The boys think it is SUPER cool and they keep chatting about how they can't wait to show their friends which makes this a successful project in this mommy's book!  It's my goal to give them a space they love to play and hang out in!

So one more project off the ol' list!  Here is what is left:

• Paint entertainment center
• Updated light fixture
• Window treatment
• Seating
• Additional toy storage
• A fun wall treatment
• Photographs/Artwork 
• Book storage

Anyone else working on a fun wall treatment or tackled a wall stencil recently?