Gossip Bench Re-do

This bench was my first attempt at Chalk Paint. I will never paint with any other technique ever again! (Okay, okay, I still love my spray paint) but there is no other way to hand paint. You don't have to sand or prime your furniture. All it requires is a little patience, two coats of paint (color of your choice), a brush, and this mixture that I found at the creative cute mind at SNAP blog! :) 

Here is the bench (BEFORE), this cute gossip bench only cost me $20! :)

Here's after the first coat of paint...

Second coat with a little bit of sanding...

And finally, DRIED and sealed! It's amazing how the color can really change in between coats, but I'm sure pictures taken at different times in the day doesn't help either!

This bench could not be complete without a cute bench cushion. I had never made a bench cushion before but found this tutorial very helpful at the CSI project! What a crafty lady! Mine is nowhere near as cute as hers, but she has some great directions to follow to make is easy to keep up!

I bought this foam at Hobby Lobby with my trusty 40% off coupon! Only cost me $3.00!

Cut it to size...I used plain old scissors but if you have one of those 

electronic-kitchen-knife-cutter-majigs 

(I'm obviously not a cook) than you might be better off for a cleaner cut. 

This crazy cute fabric was actually left over from an Tucker's first dog bed. The little butthead had ripped it up (among with many other unmentionables) while he was still a pup and I salvaged and washed the remaining fabric. It was WAY too cute to not recycle!

Stenciled Bathroom Wall

This is what friends and family fondly refer to as the "awkward" bathroom. It's not-so-conveniently placed right between the kitchen and front room, so it doesn't feel all that private. It's a small bathroom that doesn't get much love-so I figured I'd try to dress it up a little with a cute stencil from cuttingedge stencils. This one is the "Marrakech Trellis Stencil". This exact stencil can be found  here.

 

The above is my unsuccessful attempt at adding a little "bathroom humor" straight from the lyrical stylings of OutKast. To see how to make this bathroom sign, just click the link! 

Here is the bathroom (before). To the right (behind the open door) is our kitchen, and to the left of the bathroom is our front/living room.

  Cute and quaint, but just too BLAH.

I measured out the middle of the wall and marked this with a pencil. I started stenciling at the bottom of the wall in the middle. I moved the stencil from the middle, to the right, and then to the far left to avoid smudging anything that hadn't dried yet. 

You can either use stencil adhesive spray or painters tape to readjust your stencil.  I prefer to use painters tape for transitioning the stencil. Less clean up, and no gunk on the walls :) I waited to do the edges (as shown below) so I could keep my flow. 

You can either use a small roller brush or a stipple brush to lay on the paint on the stencil. I first tried using the mini roller I bought from Hobby Lobby (specifically made for stencils) and felt that it was too messy. I decided on a round foam brush and used it like I would with a stipple brush and dabbed over, over, and OVER again. I think this probably took more time, but feel like the lines looked much more crisp.

It's important to remember to have a small level with you. Even though the stencils can interlock in design and flow from one panel to the next, its easy to drop a corner without a level. 

But feel free to drop it like it's hot-

you're going to need some good tunes to get you through the next 5 hOuRs!

Time for the corners. I did my best to line up with the next stencil (while using my trusty level) and bend the stencil as tight as I could around the corners. I taped in place and began stenciling.

I started this project on a Thursday night after work around 6:30. I finished at 12:00 (with clean up time). It took a lot longer than I had expected but I LOVE the results. Just wished I hadn't started this project on a work night! 

All in all, I really loved the quality of the stencil from cutting edge stencils and felt that it was easy to clean off the stencil when finished. They include one full stencil piece and two corner pieces (one horizontal and one vertical) to help with the hard to paint edges. I wish I could order another one but I just might go stencil CRAZY!

A smart clean up stencil trick is found here at the stencil cleaning and storage at the cuttingedge stencil website. Placing the stencil on a flat cookie sheet was GENIUS and helped me a TON to cut down on cleaning frustration!