birch trees balance out giant leaning mirror nicely
A lot of decorating trends are back again. Wallpaper has made a huge comeback. Seems like only yesterday wallpaper was old fashioned – but it is back with a vengeance. I have used it in several rooms in the new house – despite getting funny looks and unsolicited negative advice (Don’t do it!) from strangers when seen buying wallpaper paste LOL
More surprising to me however is the return of stencils. Remember when crafty DIYers were running around in the late 80s stenciling fruit and ivy leaves on everything in sight? Come on you know you did it too – Fess up!
birch trunks
Well when browsing for ideas for the new house I stumbled on quite a few wall decals and then wonder of wonders a stencil site. Stencils it seemed had made a comeback – gone were the pastel fruit and leaves and in their place really quite nice contemporary designs.
Once we moved in and the decorating frenzy started I kept looking at the couple stencils I had purchased and kept deciding against them for particular rooms. Then one stormy weekend the scribbles on the master bedroom wall were just too much to bear – I decided to to paint them over.
Adding branches
I painted the bedroom two shades of grey and decided it was time to try one of the stencils. Several years ago the trend of birch trees was everywhere and I loved the look but since we were renting I never got to do it. So even though the birch tree look is probably passé now I wanted some damn trees on my wall. I found this great kit with the trunks, branches, leaves, catkins and birds all on separate sections so you could do your own interpretation. I had also already picked up a couple shades of metallic paint in silver and gunmetal and a sponge roller.
yes I put a bird on it!
I have two large walls in the bedroom that really needed something big to balance other furniture so with a little trepidation I started in on the trunks. It was quick and easy you just need to make sure to roll off the excess paint on a paper towel before applying so it doesn’t seep under.
second set of trunks
Once the tree trunks were done I stood back and admired my handiwork and decided to put a couple bare branches and then just because I couldn’t resist I went ahead and “put a bird on it” Actually two LOL
added a few leaves too
The first wall I did the gunmetal on the lighter grey wall with sIlver birds, then on the darker wall I flipped the stencils over and did silver – this time I added some leaves too.
The whole thing probably took no longer than an hour and I love it
And hey, if I change my mind it is just paint…
