Wall Stencil

I recently bought a wall stencil from Royal Design Studio online to paint a few walls in my home.  If you use the code from Young House Love: YHL10 you get 10% off!

At first, I couldn't decide between these two versions of the Moroccan circles:

  

The bottom one is more graphic and retro, and the one on the top is more delicate and subtle.

Eventually, I decided on the top one because I wanted more of the walls to be covered in the new flat paint, and less to be the original high gloss white that was existing.

[Flat paint hides imperfections in the walls better]

Here's what it was like when we first started:

It takes a long time because the stencil is only so big and you have to keep lining it up with what you last painted (after it dries) and filling in the gaps:

In this photo, you can see when the light hits it how the shine changes on the glossy paint from beneath:

It took a while for me to be satisfied with the color.  The subtle neutrals are always the hardest to get right.  I wanted it to be a flat white on glossy white, but when I opened up my flat pure white- it looked beige and on the wall too.  I didn't want that, so I mixed in some flat grey I had until it was a subtle light grey I was happy with.

Almost finished, hadn't gotten the top of the wall yet- but now you can see the difference it makes!