Ideas with Paint - Try Something New on Your Walls

Hello to Today's Housewife readers! My name is Carol Spenst, and I am so excited to be joining the Home Channel here on Today's Housewife. I love decorating - I may be slightly neurotic about it, in fact. I am by no means professional, and I have a pretty good idea that some of my rooms turn out a bit unusual. But, I wouldn't have it any other way. I really enjoy creating spaces for our family that are unique to us! And on my introductory post here, I thought I would share some fun ideas with paint.
They often say that paint is the quickest, cheapest and easiest way to transform a space, and I have found that this is so true. It also means that it is a medium that is very forgiving. If it doesn't work out, paint over it! (Though this philosophy did unfortunately lead to me painting the dining room in my old house approximately 7 times. Moral of that story - always try samples before you commit.) And, you can do so many things with paint - the possibilities are truly endless. Here are a few of the things I have done in my past two houses. Hopefully you will get some fun ideas!

Paint a Plaid Wall
- This was a little time-consuming, but I do love the results. It involved a lot of taping. A lot. If you want the details, I did a whole post dedicated to this wall on my blog here and pictures of the rest of the room are here.

The rest of the ideas will not be as time consuming as that last one. I love doing feature walls. I guess you could call is "my thing."

Tone on Tone Graphic Mural
- This was in my older daughter's nursery at our first house. My husband helped me trace the giant butterflies using a flashlight shone through little cut-outs of butterflies. An overhead projector would have been a lot easier, but we didn't have one on hand and this worked for us. I used colors one shade lighter and one shade darker than the color of the room, and they were also different sheens (the lighter was glossy, and the darker was more flat) to give it even more dimension.

Stencils
- Stenciling may seem old-fashioned, but there are so many ways it can be cool again. (At least, that is what I tell myself.) This first picture is from the master bedroom in our first house, that I just realized I never really got a picture of before we moved. I stenciled a large damask print that I purchased at Hobby Lobby in a green color that was a few shades lighter (the lighter green was also in our bathroom and on the ceiling, so it tied together nicely, as sadly, you can't see in the photo). My husband was gracious enough to frame out the places in the room that I had stenciled with trim that was painted to match the rest of the trim in the room.

- This next picture shows a stenciled border in my older daughter's current room. I wanted a stencil that looked like a Sari from India to match the rest of the room. It was a double layer stencil, which made it a little more work than I had initially imagined, but I like the way it turned out. You can see more pictures of this room here.

Using Gloss
- This next idea is really simple to execute. In my dining room, I used tape to make diamond patterns. Then I painted gloss over the space, which created a subtle look. Again, hubby was gracious enough to trim out the boxes with trim.

Well, I hope you enjoyed getting some inspiration for painting your spaces. It is quick, cheap and easy! Looking forward to seeing you all again next month - thanks for reading.



Carol is the wife of a small business-owner, mother to two little girls, crafter, very-amateur decorator, and occasional cooker. She blogs at the John and Carol Show - wanna watch?