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Dining Room Makeover

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Dining Room Makeover with Grand Damask Stencil

Since we moved into our house last April (2012), I have had so many ideas on what to do with each room.  First I tackled our living room, because I figured it would be the most frequented area of the house.  While it’s still not done, I am happy about the projects I’ve done, and the progress we have made on it.  Next, I did some work on the kitchen, and finally it was time to tackle the dining room. Here it is when we moved in (back left)…..

Dining Room Makeover with Grand Damask Stencil

  We found the perfect table, and up next was decorating.  I had a couple different ideas about hanging things, making shelves, or doing a gallery wall, but all of those ideas were put out of my mind when I started seeing wall stencils popping up everywhere.

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Pre-anything….and yes I know this picture is incredibly crooked. Oops…

Dining Room Makeover with Grand Damask Stencil 

I started talking with Royal Design Studio, and they were kind enough to send me a stencil of my choice along with some of their awesome crème paint, and a stencil brush.  Now, the hardest part was picking a stencil.  They have so many different designs that it made it nearly impossible to select the perfect one.  Originally I wanted a Moroccan Trellis, but then I thought maybe going bolder would be better?!  I am too indecisive when it comes to things like this.  So, I enlisted the opinions of my 250 closest friends, and went from there.  It definitely wasn’t unanimous, as there are so many awesome patterns, but I felt really good about the Grand Damask pattern I chose.

stencil

Now, I had to decide on the colors for the dining room.  I absolutely love super dark paint in dining rooms, but I was worried maybe my smallish dining room couldn’t pull it off.  So I debated doing just an accent wall with dark paint, and keeping the other walls light…but then I thought that might look weird….so then I thought maybe leave all the walls light and just do the stencil, but that didn’t seem to have a big enough impact in my mind…..so then I thought maybe paint a darker color, but not too dark…maybe light grey?  Are you following this? This is seriously the way I try to decide on these types of things….too indecisive.  Well, I narrowed it down and decided to go with some shade of grey.  But how to find the perfect grey?  Through multiple searches I found this great site that had The Best Shades of Grey listed!  Total. Score.  If you want to paint something grey, this is your go-to list.  I ordered 2 samples from Benjamin Moore: Kendall Charcoal and Chelsea Grey.Dining Room Makeover with Grand Damask Stencil

So yeah, I know it’s kind of hard to see them accurately, and I am apologizing in advance because in all my ‘before’ pictures I used my phone camera because I was in such a rush to just do it.  Sorry, but hopefully you will get the idea (who cares about the before pictures anyway!?).

I still wasn’t sure which color; I liked them both in theory.  So, I took out the silver crème paint that Royal Design Studios sent me, and I decided to try it on top of each color and see how I liked it.  I used the little sample stencil they sent with the order, and it gave me a good idea what it would look like.

Dining Room Makeover with Grand Damask Stencil1235884_10151607774396272_524375337_n

I know, it’s still hard to tell from these pictures, but I was totally set on the darker color once I did this.  So I took out my handy HomeRight EZ Twist Paint Stick and got to work.  Before I go on, have you heard of this EZ Twist Paint Stick?  I hadn’t either until I heard all these DIY bloggers raving about it.  I had to have it!  Let me tell you, it’s amazing!  You don’t need any trays or anything really.  The paint gets sucked up into a tube that is attached to the roller, and you just push the paint out as needed.  It also is super easy to load up…no pouring or spilling, it has an easy attachment that attaches to the paint can lid and then to the EZ Stick, and it pulls the paint in it with NO mess.  Like I said, it’s amazing.  I highly recommend getting one if you are going to be painting a large area.  It saves sooo much time, and you don’t waste any paint.  I used just the paint sample and had nearly one big wall covered.

Dining Room Makeover with Grand Damask Stencil

(again terrible picture, and no, I do not buy Pop-Tarts in bulk, this was a box from Costco!)  Can you believe that wall coverage is JUST from the paint sample?  Crazy!

Anyway, I finished painting the next day because I had to go out and buy the actual gallon of paint.  The color I selected was my Benjamin Moore- Kendall Charcoal- 166. I finished painting it the following evening, and then let it dry 0vernight. 

Dining Room Makeover with Grand Damask Stencil

Someone wanted to test out the ladder….

You can kind of see the paint color better here in natural light (Excuse the mess and the weird panoramic iPhone shot):

Dining Room Makeover with Grand Damask Stencil

I was anxious to start the stencil and I began first thing the next morning….I was a little confused where to start, but from everything I researched, starting in the middle at the top was the best idea for this pattern.  So I put all fear aside, and just went for it!

Dining Room Makeover with Grand Damask Stencil

I think I was literally holding my breath throughout the entire first stencil. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I took it off and saw the result!

Dining Room Makeover with Grand Damask Stencil

So I kept stenciling…

Dining Room Makeover with Grand Damask Stencil

Now, for some reason I felt all this anxiety about doing the actual stencil. I thought for sure I would mess it up, or it would come out terrible, or something alike.  I wish I hadn’t felt this way because it really came out great, and was super simple.  It was time consuming, but even still I did the entire wall in about 4 hours, with a couple breaks.

Dining Room Makeover with Grand Damask Stencil

The main tip to remember while stenciling is to brush off almost all of the paint on your brush before putting it to the wall.  Really, you want barely any paint.  I dipped my brush just a little into the paint, and then wiped it off on a paper towel.  Then, I used the brush and made a circular motion while painting onto the stencil. By following those simple directions I was able to get super crisp lines, and I was actually shocked at how clean the lines were.

Dining Room Makeover with Grand Damask Stencil

I also love the look of this Silver Stencil Crème.  The color doesn’t come out even, which I love, and it really picks up the light. I love it.

Dining Room Makeover with Grand Damask StencilSo I kept going….

Dining Room Makeover with Grand Damask Stencil

Definitely the trickiest part of stenciling was painting where it didn’t line up exactly: the ceiling line, the molding line, and then also where the wall stopped on the right and left sides (see picture below for example).  However, it wasn’t hard…just a bit tricky.  You really can’t tape it down, you just have to press the stencil into the corners where you want it.  Dining Room Makeover with Grand Damask Stencil

I pressed and kept my fingers crossed. It wasn’t bad, and it came out pretty good.  Be sure to tape off your edges! I like Frog Tape because it doesn’t bleed or pull up the paint when it’s dried.

Are you ready to see the final result?! I hope so because I am going to bombard you with photos….

Dining Room Makeover with Grand Damask StencilDining Room Makeover with Grand Damask StencilDining Room Makeover with Grand Damask Stencil

stencil 95

What do you think?  It was really hard to get a full dining room shot, so I did try it with my panoramic feature on my phone so y’all could see the whole room, but it looks a bit distorted…

Dining Room Makeover with Grand Damask Stencil

Now for the Before and after!

Dining Room Makeover with Grand Damask Stencil

I really dislike our lighting fixture in the dining room, and want to make or get a pretty new one….any ideas?  Have you tried out any wall stencils?  I really highly recommend them and my bathroom is next up on my to-stencil list!

Disclosure: All opinions in this post are honest and my own.  I was not compensated for this post, however I was sent complimentary products to aid in this post.

 Items you might need to do this project (aff links):

Visit my Project Gallery to see all my DIYs!

You can also connect with me here:

Thanks for visiting!

– Allyson

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Comments

  5. I love the dark gray wall with the light stencils! For the short term ( if you don’t want to buy one just yet, or spend a lot on a new chandelier) just use Rub ‘n Buff in antique gold, gold leaf, or silver, & add a lot of magnetic crystals!! Your dining room turned out beautiful!! 🙂

    Reply

    • Thanks, Melanie! I haven’t heard of those things before, I am going to look into them! I Have been checking Overstock for ‘nicer’ chandeliers and they actually have some decent one. I don’t think I am ready to pull the trigger just yet though! Thanks for coming by and you offering your suggestions!

      Reply

    • I had such anxiety over it…I was SURE I was going to mess it up. Really the key was the circular motion and wiping almost all the paint off the brush…a little goes a LONG way. In fact, I used just a 5oz container of paint on the entire wall! I am sure you can do it!! Thanks for coming by!

      Reply

    • I really love just looking at it when I am in the kitchen cooking or in the living room! Finally a better place to entertain, too! Thanks for coming by girl!

      Reply

  18. OMG Allyson I love how that room turned out! Those silver damasks on the dark background is just gorgeous. And I’ve heard really great things about that paint stick; glad to hear you like it too, I definitely need to try it out as soon as I live somewhere where I can actually paint walls. 🙂 Thanks for sharing at my link party!

    Reply

    • Thanks, Jessi! I am really happy too…I was so unsure before I started doing it, but I am so glad I followed through! Thanks for your sweet comment and stopping by!

      Reply

  23. That is awesome!!! I love how dramatic dark colors look in dining rooms. You did an amazing job with that stenciling. You are quite brave! 🙂

    Reply

  26. What a HUGE difference you made! The drama the stencils and dark paint created is awesome. You must love eating in there now. I just started experimenting with stenciling (well…since I was in elementary school) and haven’t worked on large surfaces yet. I’m tempted, though!

    Reply

  29. Hi Allyson, you did a beautiful job! I can’t believe how talented and creative you are! You are really making your house look so pretty. Have a great day.
    Julie from julieslifestyle.blogspot.com

    Reply

    • I was so scared, but like I said, it was totally do able, and I really over thought it in my head! Thanks so much for the feature!

      Reply

  36. I bought a wonderful wall stencil ages and ages ago that I’ve never used simply because I was so worried about messing up my wall or not getting a good enough coverage but you’ve given me the courage to just get after it alreadyl What a difference… your room is gorgeous!

    Reply

    • Do it!!! Seriously, it was so much easier than I thought, and I was kicking myself for not doing it earlier! PLEASE come over to my FB page and share pictures when you are done! I Would love to see it! Good luck!

      Reply

  37. I love the grey paint …its just BEAUTIFUL. I love the damask stenciled wall. Really makes the room. I have done more than a couple walls in my house with damask stencils and I always love them. I am a HUGE fan of CUTTING EDGE STENCILS.com Their stencils are high quality and much easier to use than others. Your dining room make over turned out fantastic. I am sure you will inspire a lot of people to try wall stencils themselves

    Reply

  38. Lovely ! You said you used a circular motion with the brush! Was that in like swirl the brush around in each opening or make a large circular motion over the whole stencil all at once? Did you let each “damask” dry before re positioning your stencil to a new damask because the stencil overlaps the prior one?

    Reply

    • Hey Jeannee-

      So after you tape up the stencil, you want to use the circular motion on the specific opening you are working on, and if it happens to brush over to the next one, no big deal. The most important part is to do the circular motion where the edge is…this makes a VERY clean edge. You also want to make sure that you are wiping the paint off of your brush every time you dip it into the paint, like I mention in the post, this is VERY important to keeping clean lines. By the time I would move the stencil, the paint was already pretty much dry. I worked top to bottom (check out the pictures), so it wasn’t really overlapping until at least 5-10 minutes later. The cream paint I used dried VERY quickly. Good luck! Please post pics on my FB page of whatever project you do! I would love to see it!

      Reply

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