Front Entry Makeover with Stenciling

{Our Entryway}

Before:

When we bought our home in September, we knew we had a LOT of work ahead of us. 

And we're slowly making some progress, taking it one room at a time.

(More like: we'll do a little in here, then a little in there, and maybe one day we'll have this house done!)

Since I recently posted about our front door makeover (you can read about that here), I wanted to show you the other side of that door...

our very narrow and blah, blah, bland entryway.

The very first thing we did (and by "we" I mean Jeremy) was scrape the popcorn ceilings (you can read all about that messy mess here and see a bit of the dust pile in that top photo).

Then I got to work. 

I created my own stencil with my Silhouette machine and cardstock but you could easily find a pattern you like and cut it with an exacto knife. My stencil was definitely not a complicated design.

Okay. So there is PLENTY of DIY stenciling advice out there, but here's what worked for me and I'm pretty sure I tried just about everything else:

My main method:

1. I used a small paintbrush with lots of paint on it.

2. I held the stencil in place with one hand while I painted the outline of the stencil with the other hand.

3. Then I removed the stencil to paper towels and blotted it.

4. Next I filled in my lines I had outlined.

Another method I liked:

I used the same small paintbrush with very little paint on it and stippled the stencil on the wall. In other words, I didn't paint and fill in lines. This technique was a lot faster, but the lines weren't as clean. It worked very well for the small dots that needed to be filled.

So... I changed my design horse mid-stream and opted for frames with stenciling inside, instead of stenciling the entire wall.

I'm so glad I did! It was a lot faster and adds more visual interest.

Jer and I measured the squares that I had envisioned in my mind's eye and I did all the painting and stenciling (he did help with the top and corners).

Then Jeremy used molding to frame out the edges.

I created some simple, custom art using spray painted Wal-Mart frames that I scraped with steel wool.

I also added our family name in brown vinyl to make it a little more personal and finished the space off with a new lighting fixture and rug. 

Before

After

The paint I used was Valspar "Metropolis."

Linked to: Take a Look Tuesday, Today's Creative Blog, Tatertots and Jello, The Creative Crate, The CSI Project

Front Door Makeover

If you are a facebook liker (how do you say that?), then you know I have been working on a front door makeover.

I finally got my porch light in and Jeremy installed it over the weekend. 

Are you ready to see it?

Before:

It wasn't terrible, just a little bland and in need of some color.

The front door should welcome visitors to our home and I wanted it to stand out.

After:

We added new hardware and vinyl numbers in addition to the new paint and light fixture.

Here's a little tip if you want to paint your own door...

After the paint has dried, it takes several days for it to set completely. Well, you can't really leave your door open that long.

We used Vaseline on the edges to keep the door frame from sticking and pulling off my new paint. It worked great!

The paint I used was Valspar and the color is called Belle Grove Spruce. It's a latex-based exterior paint and I did not prime first.


Linked to: Today's Creative Blog, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Domestically Speaking, The Creative Crate, Tatertots and Jello, Centsational Girl