Design Inspiration. Planet Stencil Library.

A garden in your home

Whilst browsing my back copies of World of Interiors magazine, I found this decoupage wallpaper from the 1930's.

We have made large size decoupage papers at The Stencil Library, but not on this scale. I think it's quite fab.  The idea is that you bought the different elements for your garden room and they arrived ready cut from paper. They were then pasted to your wall.  If you were clever in applying and overlaying your plants, butterflies and the like, your room could look something like this.

Of course you know I am going to tell you that you can achieve a similar look with stencils.   We have a large collection of plants, flowers and garden architecture in our Garden Room range of stencils.  The narrow photograph shows a detail from the pages of the June 2008 issue of Easy Living magazine.  The page was created by Sophie Martell and the photography is by Graham Atkins-Hughes.  They show hollyhocks, lupins and foxgloves from the our collection.  Sophie has chosen spring-like, ice-cream colours for her interpretation of a garden room unlike the colour drenched printing of the John Line wall paper.  I am loving that crockery from Albert Hall (on the tray).   It will be on my wish list.  We do a lovely decoupage pack of teacups which would complement that cushion rather well.  Here is the complete page from the magazine:   

Click on the picture to see detail or better still buy the magazine. It has a lot of good stuff this month.

My friend Michelle wanted a Garden niche creating in her French farmhouse some years ago.  So we had a Stencil Library trip and stencilled the entire house.  My Mum and Sabina stencilled this nook for her.

My own bedroom has a bit of a Garden Room vibe going on. I will save photos of the full room for a 'Tour our House' post but here is a preview.   Helen.

Framing the ancestors

I found this image in the World Of Interiors magazine.  It was photographed by the homeowner Rene Stoeltie.  The Stoelties have written many lovely books on interiors.  Although I could find nothing in the text to explain the portrait in this shot it appears to be pasted to the wall with a frame hand painted around it.

Which is just what you would do with our Print Room Swag stencil. The frames are stencilled onto the walls and the portraits (photocopies not originals!!!!) are cut to fit them. Nifty huh?  Helen.

Vera Wang's fab frock

Regular readers and friends will know that Rachel and I love to stencil our clothes.  I was overjoyed to see that Vera Wang may have been flourishing a stencil brush on this fab frock.  It is featured in her advert for Princess Perfume. Stencilling clothes is both satisfying and easy. If Vera's dress does nor suit your shape or budget, you could stencil your own creation. For a similar look try one of our swags and stencil it with Liquitex acrylic in Titanium White .  I just looked through our catalogue and would probably choose NC115, a versatile pearl border.  We even have a nifty skull and crossbone stencil should you have the hat to decorate.  The tassels on Vera's stencil are fairly similar to a design I bought many years ago for my FIRST ever stencilled clothing project. I used the tassel with the rope from TP18. Here I am wearing it sometime in the late 1980's. I was going to my friend Sylvia's wedding.  I still have the jacket! Helen

PS. I still have the hat too.