WELCOME BACK!
Phew, I am sore! So much mental and physical work went in to this week, but that’s exactly the part I love. I have had so much support from my Instagram community and so many NEW people- I’ve even started my very first brand collaboration! Coming soon…
Other awesome projects are featured on the One Room challenge blog!
WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING?
Since I last posted, I have decided to make the huge lounge chairs for my new patio area, and drawn up plans for that + ordered my fabric, so, that will be coming soon! I also drew up plans for a lower deck edition and got all my wood ordered. Now on to that pretty lil (huge) stencil I made for painting my greenhouse floor! (So many requests for a tutorial on this).
STENCILING MY FLOOR
FIRST: formatted the design (still desperately searching for the artist who made this) on an art board the size of the floor. Formatting being; sizing, angles, proper repetition of the pattern, orientation, and centering. With any floor pattern (tiles, wood, or paint pattern), you’ll want to plan to starter your pattern in the center of the room and work out from there. This will be simple if you have a design program (adobe or a free on would work for this since this is simple).
Size your board to the size of your floor area, and size the pattern to your liking.
NEXT, you’ll want to choose the size of your stencil. Remember to choose a size that has overlap so you can easily line up in more than one spot to get the positioning perfect while painting.
This part gets rather arduous, but its worth it! Select portions of the stencil size and start printing! I used 8.5x14 paper which came out to more than 20 pages. Label them and tape them together in the correct order.
These ( https://www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-Hobbies/Craft-Paint-Stencils/Stencils/Stencil-Blanks---12-x-18/p/27038)DIY ) stencil panels from Hobby Lobby worked perfectly. I bought a bunch and glued together the edges with superglue so that they wouldn’t budge.
Next you’ll want to lay your stencil over the design and trace.
I ended up using a combination of an exacto knife and scissors. REMEMBER to leave connectors here and there, especially on large cutout areas to ensure it will lay nice and flat.
Time to get started! After 2 full days of sanding, of course.
DON’T FORGET a bit of twerking whilst in your Gollum hunch.
For no other reason than I just thought it would work best, I used sponge brushes. They did in fact work very well.
You’ll notice what I meant by having some spaces of overlap for lining up here- (you’ll always want at least to reference points)
A lot of times, these edges didn’t come out perfectly. This is where my favorite part comes in- smoothing edges with a brush! It’ll end up making every flower look a bit different but that’s the way I prefer it, looking more handmade. In the photo below, the flowers on the far side have been smoothed and the ones closer have not yet.
WHATS NEXT??
This next week, I’ll be finishing this floor, staining the rest of the wood, hanging shelves, a secret marketplace project, and removing grass from the surrounding to add in my gorgeous BLUE creeping thyme! Thanks for following along!
I've been wanting to stencil my huge patio floor but hate all the commercial options. I saw this on Insta and got excited, thinking I could buy it. I'm bummed it's custom but I could possibly pull off creating a custom stencil. I just HAVE to know where you found the art, tho. It's perfect!
Ahh, I love this idea -- so fun + adds so much personality! :] You're making me want to find something to stencil in my room, haha.
That's an ingenious way to make a huge stencil! I'll have to remember that trick because now I want to stencil all the floors!!! Your patio area is going to be so awesome, and I can't wait to see who you are collaborating with!
This is AMAZING! I love the way it looks and what a fun idea! I can't wait to see this space come together. I'm working on my office but haven't made much visible progress yet. Excited for paint to be completed next week.