Closet Makeover Begins: Stencil How To

I meant to share a project I did while I waited for wallpaper to come for my closet, (you may remember - the one I was sheepish about posting?) but I haven't taken pictures yet and today's dark and rainy. So...I'll show you what I did when the wallpaper came and was the wrong color. 

On ebay, the background looked like a salmonish hot pink. Rosy watermelon? I don't know, but the description only mentioning the color of the pattern, which was gold. Golden flowers outlined on a rosy, salmonish, hot-pink/watermelon ground. Very pretty. And then it traveled over land and sea to our little town in the heart of the United States, only to be red. Straight red. Apparently, shipping back would cost more than the $14 I'd paid to buy it. So I'll try to find it a new home...

This would be downright heartbreaking if it wasn't for my recent crush on dusty purples. I got a little tulle number for this event (mentioned at the VERY end of that post where you can barely see the dress) and decided I'd like my closet to be that color, only darker...with gold medallions stenciled everywhere?  

And the hunt for gorgeous stencils began. With all the beautiful damask and medallions we see on Pinterest, I was confident I'd be able to find something reasonable. However, the hardware stores have not caught on to the trend and don't offer any great assortment of stencils in their paint sections. Boo. I wish I could be the director of creations "by Pinterest demand." Are they not watching?! Serious money to be made here. 

In the end, Martha Stewart had a small, but pretty stencil for sale at Joann Fabrics and it was $12.99. I bought a quart of Purple Sapphire by Pittsburgh Paints and two bottles of Martha Stewart's Brushed Bronze craft paint. I knew I had sponge brushes at home, although I'm sure there are MUCH better options that would've sped this process up. I was wishing for a jumbo size brush partway through, but maybe it would've just gotten sloppy. 

Here's my stencil when I got done slicing it and sliding it together to make a bigger design. I wasn't a big fan of the flowers, but when it's all gold and on the wall, it not longer shouts, "Tulips!" so I'm alright. I covered the other curly cues with painter's tape. If you're wondering why I wanted to paint my closet in the first place, it's because it looked like this:

We never had painted it. At the end of the remodel, we were too tired to do it so we washed drywall dust off the walls and hung our clothes. I've been looking at this lovely pipe and measurements for four years now. The pipe and two walls got the Purple Sapphire and the other walls became a creamy color to keep things bright. Also because I didn't want to stencil walls I hardly look at! 

So much better already! I started my stencil in a corner, at the floor where they wouldn't be scrutinized. I wanted to work out how close together I wanted the rows to be and if I would need to measure out a grid. When I got a ways into it and it looked okay, I scrapped the grid idea. Here's my first video EVER to demonstrate how I did this. My sister was kind enough to play videographer and I'm so grateful! If I tried to explain this with words, it would be the longest, most boring post in our short history...

So today's the nitty-gritty and next is the big reveal. I. Can't. Wait. It's so pretty! We even replaced the "boob" light I showed you at the beginning of this post (as a blogger friend of mine calls them). So check back to see the most glam minimalist closet you've ever seen!