stenciled key nook make-over

Time for another Pinterest-inspired project! This one is a quick little project I got moving on thanks to a little boot in the rear from the winter edition of The Pinterest Challenge. Scroll to the bottom of this post for links to the Challenge sponsors. If you happen to be here visiting from one of the sponsor blogs, welcome! Pull up a chair!

This time, I was looking for a stenciling idea for my little hallway key nook which used to be a phone nook, back in the day.

I found several neat stencil projects, but this one:



from A Sense of Design, is the one I decided to go with. Simple to replicate with household materials, elegant, and easily adaptable to a small space.

I scoured her blog for the reference image, but came up empty-handed, so I'm not really sure if it's original to A Sense of Design, or if there's a tutorial to go with it, or anything really, so I apologize if the pin is originally from a different source.

Without further adieu, here's a little before and after for y'all.

From non-descript little door-less cupboard . . .




to bright, cute little niche to hold keys, spare change, and cell phones.




A quatrefoil is a pretty easy little design to turn into a stencil. You can probably figure it out just by looking at this photo, but I'll drop a little tutorial on you after the image.




To make the stencils, cut out three identical squares. Leave one whole, and cut the other two in half. Round each of the four halves into an identical semi-circle, then attach to the whole square. Voila! Quatrefoil! Trace onto cardstock, then trace out about a half-inch border around it, and cut along that line. I eyeballed that part, but you could get fancy with rulers or a seam tracer.

Two coats of zero VOC primer. I used Dutch Boy Zero VOC Multiple Purpose Interior Primer/Sealer.




Start laying in the background color. I have been using two Dutch Boy colors (Gilded Shores and Honey Bear) on my living room and hallway walls. The background color in the cupboard is the darker of the two, Gilded Shores. The color is actually mixed in a paint called Acro Pure by Miller paint.




And here's the full base color with some very light stenciled pencil marks over the top.




This is a close-up of the pencil marks, since you really can't see them in that last photo.




And then I hand-painted inside the pencil lines, using a small paintbrush and Honey Bear.




You could do this differently. You could cut a large, multi-quatrefoil stencil and paint directly on the wall with the darker paint on top of the lighter paint (here's an instructional on that method on the Creative Chaos blog). I would recommend using waterproof stencil paper if you're going to try this method (I think she uses a commercial stencil in that tutorial). For me, working with such a small area, the time it would take to cut the stencil was more than doing it the other way.




And here it is, outfitted with the key rack (photo is courtesy my sister), some pieces from my wood type collection, and the copper piggy bank from my babyhood.




The key rack is attached using Command adhesive picture-hanging strips to minimize damage to the walls. But since I had those on hand, as well as all the other materials, this nifty make-over didn't count against our budget.

What do you think?




(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)

Linking up to:

Young House Love, Bower Power, The Great Indoors, and Hi Sugarplum, who are all co-sponsoring the winter Pinterest Challenge! (I'm borrowing their graphic:)