Stencil Do Over

Time for some updates from my end... 

 

Life has been a whirlwind of activity since we moved into our house.  Amongst all the unpacking was decorating and shopping for Christmas, planning our first Christmas dinner in our new home, and trying to settle in to a routine in our new surroundings.

 

The stair risers didn't survive the foot traffic of painters, carpenters, and other workers, so they were painted over.  It's just as well, because the paint colors I had chosen originally didn't quite go with the colors I had chosen for the walls and trim work in the main entrance.  Not to mention the scuffs and dings to the original job were pretty awful.

 

While I wasn't happy about having to do it again, I still felt very strongly about having this unique feature on the staircase.  But it was going to be tricky! With the risers completely connected to the stair treads, I had no choice but to paint them in place.  This meant also having to trim the stencils to the same size of the risers in order for them to lay flat.  I didn't want to do this but truly had no alternative.  Given this dilemma, I really didn't want to compromise all my stencils so I decided to re-stencil using only one design. 
Royal Design Studio's small camel weave, which is my favorite.

 

 

 

 

 

During one of the snowstorms, we lost power and I decided to get started.  It was the perfect time, and the glare from the snow outside provided the perfect lighting.

 

 

As before, the risers were painted with a satin finish, and I stenciled using the same color,
Sherwin Williams Westhighland White, but in a matte finish.

 

 

The final result is tastefully elegant and is stunning without being overwhelming.

The Stencil Project, Finished

So after several weeks of working on this project, it is finally complete, and we couldn't be more pleased!  Even TravelinBRITS is happy with how everything turned out!  But because the risers still aren't attached to the stairs, I don't have a photo of the "finished" project.  Hopefully by the end of September the staircase will be complete and everything will be in place.

before

 

A little background history: 

We’ve spent many years living in various places around the world due to my husband’s active duty military assignments.   Our most recent overseas assignment had us in Morocco for 3 years.  We fell in love with Moroccan patterns, design and colors, but most interestingly we started collecting antique hand-carved wooden doors with the intention of incorporating them into our home construction as functional doors, which is super exciting to see them being brought to life again as they are hung in the doorways around the house!  We also collected a wide variety of beautiful Moroccan lanterns that will be hung around our home as functional lighting, but also as accent pieces.

 

Stenciling the stair risers was an idea I had while following the beautiful blog of Maryam Montague, My Marrakesh, and seeing one of the finished projects at Peacock Pavilion in Marrakesh.  The amazing stencil designs and projects were developed by Melanie Royal of Royal Design Studio. 

My husband and I wanted the final result of our project to be subtle due to all the other patterns greeting guests ranging from the old doors, to the lanterns, to the iron balustrades. So I chose contrasting finishes (matte and semi-gloss) of the same color paint, Valspar Sunset Nude, to achieve the look, and am completely blown away with how much I love it!!!

 

Because of the heavy influence of Moroccan design throughout our home, I chose three Royal Design Studio stencils from their Moroccan collection (choosing WAS NOT easy!): 

Small Eastern Lattice

 

 

Small Moorish Trellis

 

 

Small Camel Bone Weave (my fav!)

 

What a great way to give our home a unique, hand-painted look!  I can definitely see more stencil projects in our future for making dramatic statements wherever we choose!

And while this isn't the final look, it makes me giddy with anticipation of what our staircase will really look like when it is complete!

 

 

 

To Stencil or Not to Stencil? That Is The Question!

Family, friends, lovers of design and all things unique!  I need your help!

As you know, we're in the process of building a home.  A home that's been a dream for many years, and we're finally seeing it come to life.  All those years of dreaming has produced a lot of "must haves" and "really want" design features and decorating ideas.  Some that Travelin BRITS and I agree on, and some that we don't.  But we usually work it out either through compromise or completely different ideas all together.

Like many of you, I've gotten sucked in to the idea social media sites like Pinterest and Houzz.com, where I oooh, ahhh, and drool over so many incredible photos of amazing ideas in hundreds of categories.

One of my idea books or boards is of staircases that feature stenciling on the stair risers.  This idea just sends me into orbit with color and pattern choices almost limitless.  I really want to do this on the stairs in our house!!!!!!

The art of stenciling has been around for centuries, so it's nothing new to the art world, or to the design world.  But of late, it has seen a resurgence in home decorating because of the unique "handmade" quality it presents.

I recently became enamored with stenciling while following a blog that features a magnificent boutique hotel in Marrakesh, Morocco.  My Marrakesh is written by Maryam Montague, who has lived in Marrakesh with her family for almost 10 years.  Together with her architect husband, they designed and built the amazing Peacock Pavilions in a grove of olive trees.  She is the queen of shopping the souks of Marrakesh, and has a keen eye for the unique and an impeccable flair for decorating and design.  She's even written a book, Marrakesh by Design, that you can purchase here, here, or here.

In her quest for unique decorating techniques for Peacock Pavilions, she commissioned Melanie Royal of Royal Design Studio to help her with the designs of the stencils and the actual project.  The Peacock Painters, as they came to be known, did some amazing work and the final results are a sight to behold!   You can visit My Marrakesh here to see for yourself!  I'll be listening for your ooohs and aaahs!

While I can't commission Melanie Royal, I can purchase designs from her studio to help me with my project. The help I need from you is the push to make it happen or bring it to a screeching halt.  Travelin BRITS still has to agree(!) and give his blessing on the project.  Hopefully I can come up with an undeniable reason we should complement all our Moroccan treasures with these unique designs on our staircase.  And if we both end up hating it in the end, it's only paint and can be easily painted over.... right?

So.....what do you think?  And do I have any volunteers to come help??????

These are a few pins from my Pinterest board:

I absolutely LOVE this first one, but would prefer fewer patterns.




Very traditional Moroccan tile designs, that I absolutely love!




This one actually looks like wood inlay, but is really stencil.  Amazing, right?



Here, a photo of my staircase.  These are still the temporary construction stairs, but the view gives you an idea on how the stenciling would look from the front door entrance.  The stair case will curve from about the halfway point.

I got a piece of scrap plywood from the site today.  It's big enough to practice several color combinations, but I've only invested in one stencil for now.  I'll practice with it, until I've perfected the technique and narrowed down the colors.  I'm thinking of sticking with one color for the background of the riser and a tone or two darker for the stencil design.  This way the designs are there but they're not screaming at you the minute you walk through the door.

This is what I did tonight on gold/yellow poster board with warm brown paint.  These are the last 2 designs I did in a series of 5.  I got progressively better with the technique on each one.

I'm really excited about this project and can't wait to go to Lowe's in the morning to buy paint!!!!  :)

I ask for your honest opinions, suggestions, ideas both for the project AND for convincing Traveling BRITS that we just have to do this for our home!  

THANKS, Y'ALL!!!!