Not a Goose in Sight

"Stencil." What do you think of when you hear that word? If, like me, you grew up in or around the '80s, you may conjure images of weathered wood with pastel-colored checkerboard patterns, with a smattering of geese for good measure.

I was disabused of this notion by the insanely knowledgeable Emily Evans Eerdmans in one of her first blog posts, dedicated to the amazing stencil she used for her home to simulate antique Chinese wallpaper. I bookmarked her stencil source, The Stencil Library, and promptly failed to give it another thought until recently, when I decided I wanted to paint oversized black and white stripes in my bathroom, and perhaps something for the entry, too.

Like almost everyone these days, I am fixated on wallpaper, but unfortunately the entry and bath are not such suitable spots for its application-- my entry takes more of a beating than perhaps any other room in the house, between my Jack Russell's near-pathological hatred of the incoming mail through our slot and my 3-year-old's affinity for sidewalk chalk. And with all the moisture in the bathroom, wallpaper wouldn't be long for the world.

In this season of sweeping changes, I am also reworking my downstairs at home, and have somehow* found a renewed enthusiasm for getting it done. Enter The Stencil Library.

I remembered them after seeing some stenciled stripes on a wall in "Country Living" (I decided to give it a shot after Eddie Ross's recent touting....yeah, not so much.) Today I pulled them up and dove in, and here's what I found: 5" wide stripes for the bathroom, and the chevron (oriented horizontally) for the entry in charcoal grey and white.

Can you picture it?

I'll let you know how it goes.

* tax refund