$100 Room Challenge: Week 4 The Birds Stencil 

It is time for the $100 Room Challenge: Week 4 The Birds Stencil. I am stenciling in the main focal point of the bathroom, the birds!

Welcome to the $100 Room Challenge: Week 4 The Birds Stencil. This is challenge takes place twice a year, January and September and is hosted by Erin from Lemons, Lavender, & Laundry.  She invites us to redo a room in our home using only $100, and we must complete the task in one month. We have one month to complete the makeover and we post a weekly update every Wednesday. You may have seen Erin talk about this challenge on the Rachael Ray Show. If you want to learn more about the $100 Room Challenge, you can check out Erin’s post to see how the concept was inspired, and it’s colossal growth since she started it.

Weeks at a Glance:  

WEEK  1     WEEK 2    WEEK 3   WEEK 4   WEEK 5

*Please note that I was compensated for this post. This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. These involve no extra cost to you, but may result in me receiving a small commission should you decide to purchase after clicking on my links – for which I am very grateful! You can view my full advertising disclosure here.

Stenciling In The Birds

I swear you guys are going to think I have an obsession with birds all of the sudden. First my Halloween table and porch and now my bathroom? Well I can tell you I was actually hatching (the pun was totally intended) this design concept and idea around the same time. LOL. For those of you that really know me and my design process, I am designing ideas and concept anywhere from 6-12 months in advance. Like I am already planning out Christmas for next year y’all…no joke, that is just the life of a designer, no matter what field of design you are in, fashion, interior, weddings, merchandising, graphic it is always the same story, you are always seasons ahead creating the trends and putting them out there to inspire others. It is just the nature of the business, I would be a really awful designer if I was running out today to get the items I needed do post for something tomorrow, unless they were perishable of-course, like food or flowers, but all the hard supplies like furniture and accessories, most designer have those well in advance with a game plan for the overall design. That being said I have to be completely honest with you all, as you may have read in my disclosure above I did receive this particular stencil as part of my sponsorship with Cutting Edge Stencil back in November, when I was hosting my “Sharing is Caring Giveaway”. Which our winner was Alys Davis a lovely local lady right here in Georgia! In the spirit of the $ 100 Room Competition, I am including it in the cost of my supplies, since I would have normally purchased such a specific stencil for this project
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This stencil runs $79.95 at regular price, since I had made the decision to use this pattern back in November, I would have purchased it during the Black Friday Savings Event, which I was promoting at the time and I would have saved 30% off making the stencil on sale for $55.96. I believe this is a fair assessment of how much I would have paid for this stencil if I had purchased it for this challenge, which is actually over half my budget. As you can see this is a very large repeat stencil, which will make this project go very quickly in a small space, but that also explains the more expensive pricing. This is the Small version that I am using: Sheet: 28″ x 50”; Design: 25” x 46”. However, in hindsight, I probably should have ordered the Large: 2-Sheet Design; Total Design Size: 36” x 75” but I am going to show you how I worked around that in just a few.
The other thing that I just love about Cutting Edge Stencil is they always offer a few great free stencils with your purchase; which were these, along with the included Single Bird stencil which matches the pattern perfectly.

Make Sure It Is Level

As you can see above, my stencil kit came with a level to make sure that you got the stencil completely level on the wall prior to painting. This would be very important in a geometric pattern. However, since my pattern is more of an organic botanical, I have a little bit of wiggle room. Which is something to keep in mind, if you have never done a stencil before. The botanical patterns are a little bit more forgiving, however they do require a little bit more of an artistic eye to line up, and even free hand in some of the additional patterns. I tacked the stencil up with blue painters tape in several places making sure to pull it tight against the wall.

Rolling Verses Pouncing 

I have to say thank you again to my friends at HANDy Paint products, because this roller was exactly the right size for this type of project. We just added a new liner that we had on hand and started the next phase of our project. The HANDy roll pan held just the right amount of paint and even worked great when I decided to switch over to the bounce brush for the smaller and tighter areas. While the roller worked great on the large spans; I ended up using a pounce brush after I cut my stencil down for the smaller tighter areas. When rolling, you want to make sure that you are not overloading the the sponge roller with paint. It is more of a dry roll, to prevent bleeding under the stencil edges. You also want to make sure that you are not over pressing as well, which can cause the paint to bleed under the stencil as well. You will also want to make sure that the pattern is completely filled in and covered with a nice thick layer of color; which may require two or three thin coats with a slight dry time in between. The key is to make sure that your stencil does not move or slip between coats. Once you have achieved the desired opaqueness, you can remove the stencil and move on to the next section. You may need to go back with an artist brush and do a little fine tuning on some of the lines just to get a nice crisp edge.  This is a great time to do so; which allows a little extra dry time before you layer the stencil back on to your pattern.

Breaking The Pattern 

As I mentioned above this is the Small: Sheet: 28″ x 50”; Design: 25” x 46” that I am using; which has a definite bottom edge, which becomes your ground line. In hindsight I probably should have ordered the Large: 2-Sheet Design; Total Design Size: 36” x 75”; which would have provided me a longer run, but in all honesty I still would have had to piece it together with 9 foot ceilings, so it is a moot point for me.

As you can see in this picture, what I did was pick a section to stop painting at before I reached the ground line. Then, I just layered in the the stencil pattern from a higher point on the stencil and repeated until I reached the floor with the ground pattern . This is that part where you might need a bit of an artist eye to see where the pattern should join, and then you have to thicken the vine slightly by hand painting.

Cutting The Stencil

I personally decided that once I had gotten all my long runs done that I would cut some the larger pattern into segments so I could better utilize them throughout my bathroom. Doing this allowed me to create a very one of a kind custom look by still using the the small stencil patterns. The example of the foxglove below shows how I created a large bushy grove to go behind the commode on ground level, where the stencil only had a single stem. The overall look was very effective. This trick also allowed me to create a custom edging in tight space around the shower tile and above the door frames.  I was also able to add in some additional birds and butterflies to some of the sparse areas that needed just a little extra pattern. Over all, I am very excited with how the stencil turned out, and I think since this is Week 4 I am going to hold the final over all pictures for the Final Reveal next week with the rest of the room staging.

Check out my other favorite Farmhouse Stencils below perfect for tile floors or walls like I have created in this  post. Also be sure check for the latest saving events always listed on my Shop My Style page, linked here.1. Star Tile Stencil 2.Vintage Farmhouse Sign Stencil  3. Tea House Trellis Wall Stencil 4. Prosperity Mandala Stencil  5. Hand Drawn Chevron Wall Stencil 6. Maestro Tile Stencil 7. Sprigs Allover Stencil 8. Augusta Tile Stencil 9. Pantry Sign Stencil 10. Calista Tile Stencil  11. Shiplap Wall Stencil 12. Polanka Tile Stencil 13. Thankful Sign Stencil

PIN ME for later and be sure to follow us on Pinterest at Jen @ JENRON DESIGNS 

BUDGET:

Week 1- $0

Week 2- $17.82

•  8 ft fluted primed trim boards $6.95 ea. x 2= $13.90
• Decorative Rosettes primed .98 ea. x 4 = $3.92
• Trim Paint, Adhesive, & Tape- On Hand Leftovers

Week 3-  $20.28

• 52 ft primed trim boards .39/ft x 52=$20.28
• Dorian Gray Paint- Exterior Paint Color, left by builder from building house
• Paint Supplies- On Hand Leftovers from all our painting projects
• Caulk-Leftover Tubes- Loads of half used leftover tubes

Week 4- $55.96

• Stencil Kit $79.95 On Sale 30% off- $55.96
• Dorian Gray Paint- Exterior Paint Color, left by builder from building house
• Paint Supplies- On Hand Leftovers from all our painting projects

REMAINING BALANCE $5.94

Project Schedule:

WEEK 1- Inspiration Board, Room Prep, and Product Procurement

WEEK 2- Install Mirror Frame DIY

WEEK 3- Faux Coffered Ceiling DIY

WEEK 4- Chinoiserie Bird Stencil DIY, Revisit Mirror Paint Color-Possible Grey? TBD

WEEK 5 – Room Reveal

PIN ME for later and be sure to follow us on Pinterest at Jen @ JENRON DESIGNS 

Be sure to see all the latest updates on all my friends projects too, they have some really great ones this round!