Kitchen Wall Stencil

Since we moved in, this wall has annoyed me. It runs out of the kitchen and joins the hallway, so anything we did to it needed to be subtle and fit in with decor choices we make for the kitchen, bathroom and hallway. We decided on blue, but that was as far as our decision making went. And yesterday I was staring at this wall again and decided I'd had enough.

See what I mean? Unfortunately we are not currently able to replace the heaters, so decorating the wall would have to do. I had the perfect stencil in mind, I saved it a long time ago hoping I would one day get to use it and now was that time. It was subtle, cheerful and I could do it now. So I popped upstairs to the office, printed it out and covered it in sellotape (a poor mans lamination) before cutting it out. It was a slow, painful process but I got there in the end and could finally get to work.

And I discovered the hard way that using a brush wouldn't work, even though I had been careful it had bled through.

Luckily tissue and water cleared it quickly and I headed back to the drawing board. Then it hit me, my original idea had been to use a sponge. So I googled and sure enough, it could work. So I grabbed the big bag of make up sponges I bought last year (£1 in poundland!) that I insisted I needed, finally they are earning their keep. And yes, it did make my husband laugh.

Isn't that so much better? I liked the sponged look, but if you want a solid look you could do a couple of coats. How much prettier is the wall now?

And here's a little before and after!