Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Kitchen Soffit Stencil--Done!

All scrubbed and touched up--she's ready for her close ups!


Please note how imperfect this is. I did it by hand, of course, perched precariously on my counters--or on a ladder. There was no way it could be perfect. And you know what? It doesn't matter, anyway.

This is where you see it.

When I started painting my kitchen cabinets and window trim, I hadn't intended to paint the soffit. I'd wanted to, but my daughter put up such a fuss that I thought I'd let the old stencil be.


But that was before I painted the cabinets.


Awful! Dingy! Too 1990's! (Though, I did it in 2000 while I was pregnant with my daughter. I'd ripped off an old strip of wall paper that had been up there--and without priming--stenciled right onto the plaster. There was no way to clean up all that yellowing.)



If the white cabinets sang, the soffit was like a relative who stands next to you in Church singing cheerily off-key. (I have one. She's charming. Just not singing.) So, one day while my daughter was at school, I slapped a coat of primer all over those grapes and vines.

And then I painted it white, like the cabinets, just in time for Thanksgiving.



My mom mentioned they looked "cold." A bit stark. "But knowing you," she said pointing upwards, "you'll do something with that space." I pointed to the photocopy on the fridge.

She laughed.

I had seen a stencil on a soffitt a few years ago, somewhere. It was a trellis or a bella porte design or something. It might have been in yellow. I think it was over an island, maybe. I spent a few evenings on-line trying to find it again but I couldn't.

So, I started looking at stencils on-line. I found quite a few contenders from Royal Design Studio. But I decided to go with one I had found as a free download many months ago.

I played around with scale to get the best representation of the design to fit the space I had. I ran it off the computer, taped it to a file folder and began to cut it out with my eXacto knife.


I wasn't going to make it.

My hand was already cramping and cringing. I couldn't see how I was going to do such delicate work with my head pressed up against the ceiling. This is not the Sistine chapel, I am not Michelangelo and the Pope isn't paying me, either.

And I was beginning to realise something else, too. To get it the way I wanted (black lines against a white ground), either I was going to have to paint the soffit black and pounce/stencil the white paint into the spaces (which is nearly impossible without stencil paint which I can't get locally) or use the stencil to draw the design onto the soffitt



and go back and fill in the lines with black paint.



Which, obviously, is what I did.

So, today, I cleaned up all those graphite smears and touched up the obvious splotches. I didn't tidy up the lines.



I love it. I think.


Does it look a bit like embroidery to you?

Linking up to The 147th Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch. Welcome to all visiting from the party!

9 comments :

Carol-Anne said...

Would it be excessive to say, "Oh. My. God."!!????

I love it. It looks terrific. I love how it ties in with your floors. I love it. Sophisticated. Warm. Fun.

Did I mention that I love it?

Alana in Canada said...

Thank you. I was so hoping that would be the effect. I'm so glad you like it.

onshore said...

I think you did an excellent job, it looks magnificient. Especially in the first picture it looks excellent, like Carol-Anne pointed out, it goes very well with the floor.

onshore said...

Look:
http://chezlarsson.com/myblog/2011/11/pinterest-inspiration.html

I'm sure you read that blog anyway, but I was just so blown away that she's used the exact same pattern on a totally different way. That's just so unlikely!

Alana in Canada said...

Thanks, Leena. That's cool. It is the same stencil. I know Benita has been thinking of stencilling her floor--I thought maybe you were reffering to that project. My she is inspiring, isn't she? All that energy!

Nicole said...

It's beautiful! It really looks great with the white cabinets! Great job!

Anonymous said...

Deciding to tile your kitchen countertops is a good idea and there are many tile options out there in which to choose from. It really depends on your budget as to which tiles you opt for and some materials are more expensive than others.

scb said...

You have done an amazing job -- no surprise there. Sophisticated and fresh.

Yay, you!

Designing Lady Jane said...

It looks great, very fun and up-to-date. You could go blue and brown circle mode with it, or Parisian and still have that pattern look fresh. I have huge soffits in my kitchen I'd love to make go away, one day I'll figure out how to make them look classy too.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...