Spoiler Alert: Wall Stencils!

Wallpaper is trendy at the moment, but let’s face it, it’s also not the easiest thing to do. I’m so excited to share how I used wall stencils to achieve a patterned look without all the time, hassle and frustration of wallpaper!

HALF BATH– before:

When we bought our house last year, the half bath on our first floor looked like this:

As far as wallpaper goes, this wasn’t bad and I didn’t really mind it, but the room only has a frosted window so it was really dark and the big kicker for me was that the wallpaper seams were starting to come apart and peel. Not to mention a piece of the backsplash on the side had come off the wall so the bathroom needed a little TLC.

WALL PAPER REMOVAL

We started by removing everything from the walls and we actually removed the door since it’s a small space and at times, two of us were working on this project. Then, we went to the dreaded wall paper removal phase. I will say, for this project, removing it was not as bad as I expected.

DURING

Wallpaper Removal Products & Tools

• Piranha 32 oz. Liquid Concentrate Wallpaper Remover (you can see the bottle on the counter in the first image)
• Zinsser Wallpaper Stripper
• Removal tool kit (the first product came in this kit- also available at Home Depot and other hardware stores)

Both products worked fine. The first one was more of a pain- it had to be mixed in a bucket with hot water and it worked best when it was kept warm. The second product was much easier to use- you could just spray it on from the bottle, but I only used this on a small area (see DIY Fail below). You can also use steam or they sell wallpaper removal machines. Whatever works is just fine!

The best method I found was to start peeling the top layer of paper if there was something to grab onto, and if not, use the scoring tool to rough up the surface. Peel or scrap whatever you can first and then apply some removal product (if you’re me, you apply liberally) and use the scraper to to scrape off the next layer of paper/ glue until you see dry wall. Don’t go to town too hard, like I did, or you will have to do a lot more spackling before the you can paint.

You can see in the above photos the glue on the walls, where you can still see that icky brown coloring on the walls. That glue all has to be scraped off. Keep going if you still see that. And yes, we (by we, I mean my husband), did remove the toilet so that we could remove the wallpaper behind it. It spent too long for comfort hanging out in our foyer. Don’t worry, it’s back in its rightful place now!

PAINTING

Once all of the wallpaper and glue was removed, we painted the walls and trim white. I like this Killz 2 All-Purpose Interior Exterior Primer. You can buy a large vat of it, you don’t have to wait for it to be mixed, and it’s easy to remember what the container looks like so I can be sure I am using the same white in my entire house.

We also removed the cabinet doors and hardware and later replaced them with updated knobs and hinges to match the new faucet, toilet paper and hand towel holder. I painted the front of the vanity without the doors and the inside of it. The hubby painted to the cabinet doors outside. (Can you tell he’s an engineer by his painting set up?). I also painted the door with the same Killz white primer. Heck, while i was at it, I painted the small hallway outside the bathroom that was in the most dilapidated yellowish white. A fresh coat of paint goes a long way in freshening up an old space! [Fun fact: I dropped a microfiber towel in the vent on the wall while prepping the walls. It’s still there if anyone is able to help retrieve it..]

Here is the paint I used for the cabinets (and later for the stenciling)

DIY FAIL

Full disclosure, I attempted wall paper first. I failed. I was so excited when I started this project. I had gone to a local paint store that had books of wallpaper and I picked out the most fun garden print from Rifle Paper Company (see below! How fun is that?). I had picked a paint color for the cabinets to go with the wallpaper (which I ended up using). By the time I got to the wallpapering step, I was down two hands (my husband decided to break his leg- convenient timing) and it just did not go well. It kept wrinkling and sliding and not lining up correctly. I eventually gave up and removed what was still stuck on the walls.

Then I even had someone come and give me a quote for what it would cost to have a professional do it. The paint store had told me one double roll of wallpaper (pictured below), should be enough for a small bathroom. Well, the wall paper professional told me I would need two more rolls (~$120/ roll plus shipping = ~$260) which take about a week to come in, I would need to prep the walls better if I did not want to pay him to do that (spackle, fix the corner with joint compound where we had a slight issue, and paint the walls with wall sealer) and it would cost him another $380 for him to do. That would mean I would need to spend about $640 more on this small powder room. In the grand scheme of things, that might have been worth it, but I was hoping this was a room I could do myself and with other projects I would like to do, this wasn’t going to be what I spent my money on. Plus, I was going to have to put just as much time in to prep the space as I would if I wanted to just paint it.

I did not want a plain white bathroom. So what to do? I scoured Pinterest and Amazon and finally found wall stencils! These are such an easy way to add a little something to your space in a short period of time, on a budget and without hassle. Here is the stencil I selected.

There are a number of stencils available online- most places do not sell them in store. I chose this one because the pattern was neat, and also because the size of the stencil was quite large (24 x 36). The larger, the stencil, the fewer times you need to tape, paint, repeat.

How to stencil: I read several posts and watched several videos before stenciling. I was also a little nervous about it, so I did some test runs on cardboard.

Here are the takeaways:

• Do not overload the roller with paint
• Prep your space – tape a drop cloth down, get your pait in the paint tray and have a roller ready

What I could not find in any post I read or video I watched, was how long do you need to wait to move the stencil? Here is what I discovered on my own: not long!

STENCILING Once your space is prepped, you’ll start in the left hand corner of the wall you want to stencil. Use some painters tape to tape the top left corner to the wall (without covering the cutouts in the stencil). Then tape the top right corner and then smooth the stencil down as much as possible before taping the bottom. The art is in the prep of taping the stencil. Lightly roll your roller through the paint – you can always go over it again before you move the stencil if you don’t use enough. Simply roll the roller over the stencil, being careful not to roll it over any bare wall. And that’s it- you’re done with that section! You can actually immediately (and gently) remove the stencil from the wall. I let me stencil rest on a drop cloth on the floor for just a few minutes, just to let the paint on the stencil dry, before repeating. You could probably wipe the stencil, but this was easier and less messy.

REPEAT To stencil again, you’ll just repeat above, and line up the next section with the previous section. This stencil had two extra pieces so you could line those two up for the next section. When you get to the bottom or the side of the wall, I recommend covering the cutouts in the stencils with painters tape when it’s taped to the wall so that you do not accidentally paint one of the cutouts that will get cut off.

I had no issues, luckily, with color bleeding under the stencil. You may want to read reviews of your stencil. I did see reviews of other stencils where people said that was an issue, but that could be an issue with the taping. If you do have any issues, keep your wall paint handy and just use a brush to touch up any spots. I had a few spots I accidentally painted that needed touching up and they are now unnoticeable (or so I think)!

Supplies Needed

• Paint
• Paint tray
• Small roller
• Painter’s Tape
• Drop cloth

Et voila, here is the finished product!

TLDR: Save yourself the trouble and time and try wall stencils! Prep your space, get some painter’s tape and stencil away!

The following are some suggested steps to make the experience of getting your house on the market feel less daunting. They may not all work for everyone, but you can see what works for your specific situation. Disclaimer: my photos are not the best quality as we took them in the midst of moving! [TLDR at the bottom!]

Week 1 PACKING SUPPLIES

1. STEP 1: Obtain* boxes, clear bins, packing tape, and sharpies. I purchased some really good boxes at Home Depot with built in handles, but a *pro tip* is to see if your Realtor knows of anyone looking to get rid of boxes. I also found a bunch of clear bins at Ocean State Job lot and Home Depot as well, but you can definitely find them elsewhere such as Lowe’s, Target, Walmart, Amazon etc. I recommend the majority of the boxes to be medium sized, next small, and only a few large since they are hard to carry. I also ordered colored dot stickers similar to these (see pic above), but in green, yellow and red. I used the green to label boxes that I needed to unpack first, yellow (or in this case orange) for second priority boxes, and red (or in this case pink) for boxes that did not need unpacking right away. (Think like a street light- green, yellow, red). Additionally I recommend getting some space saver bags (Bed, Bath and Beyond (and of course Amazon, Home Depot etc.) sells them- don’t forget your coups!) and some for hanging clothes.
2. Step 2: Collect Packing Materials such as paper, bubble wrap, foam, glass dividers etc. You’ll need something to wrap up breakable items. Home Depot also sells a breakable moving kit.
3. Step 3: Order or reserve some form of storage unit such as a Pod, *U- Box (from UHaul), Pack Rat or even a local moving company that will store your items for you in a climate controlled location. Alternatively, you can always rent a local storage unit (and possibly) some sort of transportation to get the bigger items there. [*A quick note about low hanging power lines  – Our previous house had low hanging power lines across our driveway that did not allow enough clearance for a Pod or Pack Rat to be delivered. The U-Boxes were the only ones that could be delivered via forklift so that they did not need to raise the portable storage unit as high as the power lines to drop them off.]

You’ll want to have all of these supplies before you start so once you are ready, you can get things in boxes, into storage, and forget about them.

Week 2 DECLUTTERING

The ultimate goal here is two-fold; 1. get the house listing ready, and 2. start to get the house packed up so you’re ready to move when it sells. Declutter accomplishes both of these goals. Keep this in mind when you’re making those tough decisions about packing now or later.

START by going through your house and removing any personal items from the walls i.e.) family photos and pack them up. This is an easy first step that you can do quickly and feel like you’ve accomplished something. Only leave items that you will use when staging your house. If you expect that whatever you had hanging on the walls in your kitchen, will go directly to your new kitchen, then box those items up together and label that box KITCHEN (and the specifics of what’s inside). If you don’t know where you will hang things in your next home, box all wall hangings together. I recommend putting wall hangings in a cardboard box as usually this is one of the later/ last things you will unpack/ set up so you don’t need to see in inside the box.

Packing tips

• Pack things by room if you will unpack them and put them back in the same type of room OR pack things of similar categories if you don’t know where some things will go
  • i.e. “Kitchen” OR “Wall Art”
• Be neat
• Label e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.- you want to be able to look at a box and know exactly what’s inside
• Add colored dot stickers to color code your boxes for unpacking (Green for boxes to unpack first, yellow, second, and red boxes can wait to be unpacked)
• Use some dish towels or extra towels to wrap breakables- if you’re moving you likely don’t need to keep as many on hand as you normally would and this will help start to declutter your closets and drawers

Week 3 ROOM BY ROOM

• Start in a small room that you do not use a lot so that it does not feel overwhelming. The more tasks you finish, the more accomplished you’ll feel and the less daunting it will be.
• Dining Room – I started with my dining room because there was a lot of stuff in there that we do not use every day and since we were moving, we didn’t have plans to entertain a lot of people in the near future.
  • Start in a room like this or a maybe a living room or guest room, for example. There is no use waiting to pack a room with infrequently used items. Plus since those boxes will be packed up first, they will be at the bottom of your storage unit and therefore unpacked last. Most likely these boxes can be color coded with a red dot sticker.
• Just start somewhere! Don’t get too bogged down in what to do first. Pack up as much as you can and really only leave out items that you use every day or will use to stage your house
• Remove furniture that clutters the space and get that into your storage. This will immediately start to make you feel like you have less to pack and make rooms look more open. We put shelves in our U-box that we wouldn’t be needing and this helped us organize the storage space.
• Kid/pet toys/Games– I am guessing there are many toys they don’t actually use. This is also a good place to get some things packed up early as they add mess and clutter. Use a clear bin if you’re not sure if you’ll need them so you can easily find those items later
• Linen Closet– this is another place to work on early. If you’re like me, you have a lot of extra towels, sheets etc. Just keep the bare minimum- you can always do laundry! Use space saver bags for all of these
• Bookshelves– You can probably remove most things from your book shelf, but if you run out of steam, this is an area you can at least try to stage nicely. Grouping by color always looks nice!

• Kitchen– the kitchen can feel really overwhelming because most of us spend the majority of our time in our kitchens and it’s hard to figure out what to pack and what you’ll need for the next few weeks. Here are some tips:
  • Holiday dishes/ baking tins- pack those!
  • Extra dishes- if you have more than one set, you definitely can do with just one set for a few weeks
  • Dish towels- if you have a drawer full of these, keep half and use the other half to wrap dishes
  • Serving ware- keep the bare minimum
  • Pots and pans- chances are you can make do with one or two pots and one or two pans and you can pack away the really large ones you only use when you have a lot of people over
  • Appliances- if you do not use them every day, pack them away- maybe these would be good boxes to label with a yellow dot sticker
  • Wine/ specialized glasses- I know it might pain you, but you can use a different glass, if needed
  • Non-perishable food- you may think you need access to your entire pantry, but trust me, you don’t! We survived without many of our snacks (and alcohol). Separate out the most commonly eaten ones and items you will need for a few weeks. Put everything else in a clear bin. You can leave this bin in the house, just in case, but at least now it’s packed and can go into storage or the garage or basement since it’s safe in these bins and it’s out of your way.
  • A lot of the kitchen was coded in either green or yellow dots
• Clothes are another overwhelming category, but let me break it down for you! Think about which season you are in or even if you’ll be changing seasons, you will not need allll of your clothes. Pack the clothes that are not in season. You do not need them! Here are a few tips:
  • Use space saver bags
  • Pack your fancy clothes and shoes first. If you do have a fancy event coming up (we had a wedding), just set aside the items you need for that, otherwise you likely won’t need these items.
  • Focus on things that are in your closet- again your goal is to make your home look decluttered and trust me, people do look in closets when they are looking at a house. A cluttered closet is a turn off for a buyer
  • Pack shoes that are not in season- if it is summer, you do not need your winter boots!
  • Next, focus on clothes in furniture that is adding clutter to your space.
  • Use these clear ziplock bags, too so you can easily find what you’re looking for and they are easy to move and stack.

Keep your focus on those high-priority rooms that people care a lot about i.e. kitchen, bedrooms, and family room. You want the potential buyer to be able to picture living in your house and it’s hard to do that if they can’t see the room through all the clutter. Rooms like dining rooms and living rooms should have the bare minimum since those may be more formal spaces and you will hopefully be able to eliminate a lot from those space.

The above items that you packed can now go into your storage space and you can forget about them until you move into your new space. Hopefully, this will help your home look a bit less cluttered!

One last tip:

• First in/Last Out Box – I recommend making one (or more of these) and store in a clear plastic bin or even a plastic bucket. I had one that had cleaning supplies ; wipes, paper towels, soap, sponge, toilet paper, microfiber cloths, swiffers- everything I needed to clean the house we were selling and what we would need the second we walked into the house we were buying. This box i was able to pack right away, but leave handy. I also had one of these boxes with kitchen stuff; paper plates, forks, knives, spoons, a few dishes, glasses, olive oil, salt, pepper, a few kitchen utensils such as a spatula and a pot and pan, dog needs etc. . I packed up this box later, but kept a list of the items I would want readily available. These boxes traveled to the new house in my car.

I hope some of these tips are helpful or at least help you find a place to start! I followed these tips for my move and I had my house almost completely unpacked within a week. It made it very easy for me to prioritize what to start with and figure out where items were that I needed.

TLDR: Get packing materials and some sort of storage unit, start decluttering your space with rooms you don’t often use and items you will not be needing for a few weeks. Remove as much as possible, pack up and label everything!