The Dining Room Wall is Finally Happy!

When we moved into our condo 3 years ago, the back wall in our dining room was painted pink. Most of you know that I LOVE the color red. I decided the pink was close enough to red that I'd try to make it fit in with my bright red kitchen things. I didn't like the color, but thought I could tie it in by painting the same color pink around the window on the wall next to it, and by hanging a valence my mom made for me that had some cute pink/yellow/green paisley in it. I wasn't satisfied with that so I painted some paisley designs on the pink wall as well. I liked the way it turned out, but it still wasn't red, and it didn't work with the deep red drapes I now have hanging on the sliding door next to the window. Finally, I decided to paint the wall the same color as the fireplace wall I previously wrote about to help tie the living/dining area together! Here is a progressive display of the result! Tom and I both love it now! 

This is the pink wall after adding the paisley designs. 

This is the pink window box I painted, just before getting rid of it!

This was round one of the project. I painted the wall blue, then ragged the same bright green paint I have in the kitchen over the blue. Next I struggled to find a stencil I liked, so I bought one and made another. I used the one I made and didn't like it. Neither Tom nor I liked the green ragging. It looked like finger prints all over, not very classy. This is a picture of me trying the stencil we bought, which is what I used in the end.

A bigger picture of the green ragging and the stencil design I made. 

After that discouraging first try, I repainted the wall blue (2 more coats!), switching from satin to eggshell in the process so it wouldn't glare as much. Then, Tom helped me by measuring and figuring out how far apart to paint each stenciled design. He suggested that I hang string at certain points, then measure off the string and use little pieces of tape to mark where the centers should be. This worked so well! 

This is what each finished stencil looks like. 

Here's a shot of the "new" dining room! We moved the hutch over to the corner as well for a little change and better access to the kitchen.