Stencil Heaven

Be Still My Heart! 
(vintage collection, those were the days)

You must go right now (or when you can sneak it in at work) to Stencil Library for a glorious visual creative feast and inspiration. The website is revamped and it is Fantastic. I have purchased many stencils from SL. The owners, Helen Morris and her family, are just the best. Even though located in the UK they ship worldwide at excellent flat rates. There are thousand of stencils in any style you can imagine. These are some new ones I so adore:

These stencil examples are repeated to look like wallpaper. I want this one on the wall behind my bed! 
Oo-la-la baby!

                

Stencil Heaven Redux

single damask  stencil

In case you have not noticed I am a HUGE fan of stenciling. It is easy, fun, inexpensive and gives you instant wall design that is so easy to change.  And as I am sure you know, stenciling ain't what it use to be. To that end you MUST visit  Royal Design Studio and Modello Designs  to see the inventive, inspirational and creative genius of Melanie Royals.

an "all over" stencil is a design repeated so you can cover more area at one time

Here you can purchase all kinds of stencil designs including "all over" patterns for large areas.  And Melanie has plenty of classes and even web classes which are so easy to take over the internet while in your 'jamas (SP?). 

Get your Redo On! Start at the Start...

Lets start at the start. That place you enter and leave from everyday. It is an entry/exit area of some sort, probably a smallish space and thus not a big tackling job. Come on and just do it*.  Wake up baby and GO WILD. This is the perfect place. No one hangs out in here and declare every bit of it YOURS.  Lets say you want to change this:

(the entry to my client's apartment BEFORE)

                                                                                  

A nice size entry but a bit crowded. And how about doing something FUN and ELECTRIC like THIS:

mark chamberlain genius who also writes on color at AT

Lets get your cha-cha going when you leave home and get happy when you come back. I DARE Ya! OK, so here we go...how about trying THIS:

(AFTER: view entering, fab turquoise picture covering that fuse box now)

Yup, clear it out, tape up a zigzag pattern and paint it! Damn, that was not so hard was it? And just go right over the top of the doorways:

College Redux/My Weekend

Come On! How cute is this Chaise?! I am so proud of the way it came out. It was an awful "mature-woman" (not "little old lady") pink and faded but had great bones, all feather cushions. From the thrift store. I helped the Pooh pick out the fabrics from a fab discount fabric store in NY and determined the application.

Showing herself off again. Love the box pleats that do not go to the floor. She's got on a short sexy skirt! (yes, I do speak to furniture)

Anyways The Pooh went off to college again last fall, is sharing a house and has her very OWN big bedroom, an unbelievable luxery for a college student. Of course she had to move her stuff in "RIGHT AWAY THIS WEEKEND MOM!" as she said on a THURSDAY. Her previously painted bookcases and desk were completely trashed from the first two years of college and desperately needed a redo.  

The chaise was the color inspiration.

Desk Finished (no before pic,  just picture an old white leather glove in the middle of the street)

 We are talking about priming, 2 coats of paint, stenciling and 2 coats of poly in THREE days on THREE pieces! 

I do not have a studio/work room so everything gets done right in the kitchen/living room/dining area in the winter. What difference does it make to have a creative mess for a few days. I love the way that slim, inexpensive rolling cart from CS fits under the desk. Note: desk drawer is gone. I was told it "broke" when desk was being moved. (probably during some party...)

 A touch of silver leaf on the applique. You got to not worry about leafing. Slap on some water based size (glue), let it tac up, slap on a piece of leaf and brush it off.