How-to: Dimensional stenciling

I made minimal progress over the weekend, and my "how-to" is going to be a bit lame as my husband was holed up with office work all weekend so I had to man the camera myself and I don't even know how to use that timer doohickey so I was snapping with one hand while the other was attempting to demonstrate.  (In addition to dimensional stenciling, I can do a mean run-on sentence, eh?)

For dimensional stenciling on walls, I always use this stuff...

The numbers on the bag indicate the working time once it has been mixed with water, and it comes in 5, 20, 45, 90 and 210 versions.  You do NOT want to use the 20 I have pictured - that means you only have twenty minutes from the time it's mixed until it turns into a hard, unworkable mass of (sheet)rock.   The instructions on the bag indicate that you are supposed to add the powder to your water rather than vice versa, and I've heard/read that doing the opposite leads to dry clumps in the mix, but I've never had that problem and find it a lot easier to add water to the powder.   Mix up a small amount at a time, because it goes a long way.  I mixed up about 16 ounces (measured in a liquid measuring cup) at a time, with roughly 2/3 - 3/4 cup of water.  This can vary a lot, however.  For instance, for my first batch I used the bag of 20 minute stuff simply because it was already open, and I needed half as much water as I did when I switched over to the new bag of 90 minute mix.  I assume that's because it was a very humid day and since the bag was already open it had sucked up some of the moisture from the atmosphere.  Moving along...

Using an electric mixer to incorporate your water really helps to insure you don't have the dry clumping.  You want the consistency to be pretty stiff at first...

As you can see, it's definitely stiff - that's what you want at first, because you're now going to wait 60 seconds to allow the powder to fully absorb your water, then check it and add more water if necessary - but you're not supposed to add more powder after this point.  I found it was still quite workable after 60 seconds, so I left it alone.  One huge benefit to leaving it as dry as possible, while still workable, is that it's going to dry on the wall much more quickly.  Since you're going to have to wait for one run of stenciling to set up a bit before going next to it with another, cutting down on that dry-time is going to speed things up considerably.  

As for the stencils themselves, there are stencils made specifically for dimensional stenciling and they're much thicker than regular stencils.   This allows not only for more build-up, but the stencil itself is less likely to move or tear, so I strongly recommend using the right stencil for the job.  Both  Victoria Larsen and Royal Design Studio have several to choose from.  The one other tool you'll need is a trowel of some sort.  I used these...

which I picked up at a SALI (now IDAL) convention several years ago.  Any trowel/spatula will do though.  These are flexible, which I prefer, but I've used rigid ones with the same results.  Having curved edges is very helpful as it minimizes the problem of lines being formed in the plaster by sharp corners.  

Now, choose where you want to start...

I want some leaves attached to this branch...

But I just wanted the lower grouping of leaves on the far left, so I tried to trowel just over those parts...

It's a bit hard to see in my bad photos, but most of the leaves on this stencil have small little pointy bits that dissect the leaf in the center.  To avoid lifting and bending them, I troweled from the bottom of the grouping and then upwards to the outer tips of the leaves.  

Now that the portion I want on the tree is plastered over, I can lift the stencil off...

and as you can see, there are bits of plaster there that I don't want.  This is why dimensional stenciling with drywall mud is so much more user-friendly than painted stenciling:  It wipes right off!   

I was able to wipe these bits off immediately, but sometimes you're going to get a goof that is too close to what you want left alone, so let it dry thoroughly and then wipe if off with a damp rag.  Drywall mud is also super easy to sand, so you'll want to have some sandpaper to knock down any very rough ridges that are formed, but you can also do a lot of "sanding" simply with a damp rag and it doesn't create nearly the mess that sanding does.  I went over the entire tree with a damp rag to just smooth things out and it took me less than thirty minutes for all six trees.  

Going back a bit, see that "highly textured" bit of trunk right next to where the branch meets it in the second-to-last photo?  That happened because I tried to build my tree too fast and the lower portion of the trunk's plaster hadn't dried sufficiently.  Honestly, I don't think it's going to be noticeable in the end, so I'm not going to worry about it.  If you're more anal than I, it could easily be filled in with more plaster after it's thoroughly dry.  

A few other thoughts on dimensional stenciling:  If I were doing cabinetry or furniture, I'd use something tougher than drywall mud.  

For my fireplace mantel, I used Liquitex Modeling Paste, which is much harder when dry, but also impossible to simply wipe off with a damp rag when dry, and much more resistant to sanding.  Those are good qualities in a piece of furniture, because you want it to stand up to abuse.  With something as sprawling as these trees though, being able to go back in and "edit" is of greater importance to me.  For instance, there's a grouping of leaves I added that is going to interfere with the cornices I have planned for the windows.  No problem, a wet rag and a few minutes time and it'll be history.  After it's painted the drywall mud stencil becomes much more permanent, so be sure to go in and do all of your editing before that point.  

I'll leave you with a shot of my (almost) completed trees.  I still need to do quite a bit of painting (obviously!), and I still need a bit more of the leaves trailing onto the ceiling, but it's getting there...

Looking at this, I can't stress enough that oft-times "less is more" really, really applies to this art.  I was actually much happier with my trees on Friday night than I was after adding more leaves on Saturday. The trees had a much less 'cutesy' feel to them than they do now - they were more stark and artistic somehow.  On the other hand, and regardless of how easy it is to edit things out, it's not "off" enough that I dislike it so this is probably it.  

I hope this little "how-to" has inspired you to give dimensional stenciling a try.  I was really surprised at how little I found in the way of how-tos via a google search, and not a single video turned up.  I'll rectify that sometime after the first of the year with a video of my own.  If I can figure out how to work the video doohickey on my camera.  

Note to self: Don't make promises. Ever.

Remember that promise I made in the close of yesterday's blog entry?  I lied and I'm ashamed of myself. I do have a good excuse involving molten metal and smoke alarms, but I won't go into that.  The one thing I did do related to the room yesterday was pick up a luggage rack at Bed, Bath and Beyond ($24 plus tax with my 20%-off coupon).  I don't think I've ever seen a collapsible luggage rack outside of a hotel room, and I don't really understand why more people don't have them.  Every time we have overnight guests I wish we had one to make it more convenient for them to live out of their suitcase, but it never occurred to me to actually go out and look for one.

Back to the walls:  I'm going to share my rambling thoughts on the very different and opposing ideas I have in the hopes that maybe one of you will have something to say on the topic that will finally budge me off the fence.

If you've been reading from the beginning, you'll recall this pattern...

and that I was thinking of using this along the perimeter of the ceiling, two or three rows deep, using the five accent colors randomly.  If I go with that, I have three different ideas for how to incorporate the colors on the walls, and you're just going to have to try to visualize two of them because I don't have access to a decent program to render it since I switched to a Mac.  (I hope to rectify that very soon.)  The first option would be to lay out random tone-on-tone stripes by simply taping them off on the flat/matte base coat and painting over those sections with a satin or semi-gloss waterborne polyurethane or glazing liquid.  Then I would do the same pattern as above on the walls, but letting the staggered blocks of color fall down the wall more on this stripe, less on that, etc.  I prefer an organic look rather than a strictly ordered one in this room because I think it's more relaxing (and this is a bedroom).  The second option would be to do the tone-on-tone striping the same way, but to add the metallics in here and there as narrower, floor-to-ceiling stripes, possibly centered in the tone-on-tone stripes, or perhaps flanking them.   The third option was inspired by this....

Eijffinger Bijoux Designer Range Wallpaper

featured on French Dressing

I love that look.  Hate wallpaper, love the look.  Love it so much I think this wins if I decide to go geometric.  A big plus to this is that I wouldn't need to do any tone-on-tone striping at all; in fact it would detract from it if I did.  Laying it out would take a bit of time, but I could probably have the walls finished tomorrow if I decide on this.  On the other hand, I don't think it would be as striking in the colors I'm using as it is in this photo.  Of wallpaper.  Ugh. That's a topic for another day.

The other, opposing idea I have is a variation on this theme....

This is a raised, or dimensional stencil that I fell in love with and purchased several years ago with absolutely no clue when or where I might use it.  Here I've only used some of the branches, but in my guest room I'd want to incorporate the whole tree...

From Victoria Larsen

By the way, I think Victoria Larsen is in Idaho, and I've just got to ask anyone who might know:  Don't they have aspen trees in Idaho?  Because she calls this an aspen and as a Coloradoan who sees aspen trees every day, I can tell you it's no aspen!  But isn't it pretty!?!  I love the detail on the bark and think the trunk could be so stunning in silver and white, with the leaves painted randomly with the other accent colors.  If I go this route, I'd plant one tree on the wall next to the window at the end of the room opposite the bed, and I'd continue the leaves here and there all the way around the perimeter of the room on the ceiling, and perhaps trailing a bit down the walls.  Beyond that, I'm undecided.  I could leave it at that, but also do the tone-on-tone striping - I'm thinking very wide stripes, 3" and up - so that my ceiling lighting still had something to play with on the walls.  Or I could paint a few stripes relatively evenly spaced throughout the room in the various accent colors with white leaves and branches placed on top.

There you have it:  Two very different ideas that I simply cannot seem to choose between.  Going geometric would certainly help give the room a more masculine feel, and would help to continue the art deco aspect as well, but I think that the deeply colored fabric I picked up for the headboard and plan to use on a footstool will help add a bit of that, as will the barrel chair if I actually am successful re-uphosltering it in the way I see it in my mind's eye.  Quite honestly, I'm leaning toward the tree though.  I don't think my son - the main person I'm trying to please by masculinizing the room to begin with - would be opposed to the trees.  He liked another tree theme that I did so much he asked me to duplicate it in his first apartment in Los Angeles, but it's also a much more masculine looking tree...

Looking at this photo again makes me sad I didn't keep in touch with the client. Betty was roughly my mother's age, and so open to both color and bold patterns in the rooms I did for her.  And every afternoon around four 'o clock she'd convince me to set down my brushes and join her for a glass of wine and we'd sit and chat and laugh and it was just a lovely way to end my workday.  I really miss her.

There I go, rambling again; sorry!   Please, if you have any opinion about the ideas I'm mulling over, leave me a comment.  I'm really sick of thinking about what to do with the walls; I want to just do the walls already!  Oh, and I take back what I said in a previous blog about it being a "luxury" having myself as a client.  I'm a PITA!