Design Inspiration. Planet Stencil Library.

A Moving Story

My sister is moving!  A few years ago, my sister relocated to rural New Jersey with her husband and daughter.  They purchased a really sweet (and small) 1950's cottage in the midst of the most glorious (and historical) New Jersey countryside.  My sister is very creative and likes to inject her decor with colour, humour and vintage style.  It was not long before I was induced to fly over and help her paint and stencil her cottage from top to bottom (or rather side to side as it is all on one level).  The house consists of a kitchen/dining room, a bathroom, a living room and two bedrooms.  I was there for three weeks and managed to get every room stencilled in the time I was there.  I quite like planning schemes with her because she has such vision and is not afraid to play with colour and pattern.  As they pack up this house to move south to Florida, I thought I would showcase their current stencilled home.

You enter the front door straight into the kitchen/dining room.  My sister loves Art Deco style.  She discovered Clarice Cliff pottery from the 1920's and 30's and it was this that inspired the theme and colours for this room.  The walls were painted a pale grass green colour.  Then we stencilled our Art Deco style house (DE340)in bright red, orange and black as a repeat along one wall.  My sister collects vintage tablecloths and crockery so the bright colours complimented her collection.  Find the stencil at http://www.stencil-library.com/docs/cat124.htm.  The door entering the house is opposite this stencilled wall.   There were plain white blinds at the french doors and we don't do plain!  It was a morning's job to take the panels down, stencil them with our CO17 Polka Dot stencil (from our Contemporary range) in red and black and hang them back up again http://www.stencil-library.com/docs/cat135.htm.

The kitchen/dining room runs directly into the living room.  Inspiration for the scheme in the living room was drawn from vintage travel posters.  Also, because the large doorway is open between the two areas, the colours needed to be complimentary.  Due to the height of the room, we decided to put the main stencilling over the chimney breast which would carry the whole room.  My sister chose an Art Deco repeat (DE322) with trees and swallows (as their house is in the woods) and it was simply stencilled in graphic black.  The stencil can be found at http://www.stencil-library.com/docs/cat122.htm. 

Perhaps the most fun room to do in the house was the tiny bathroom.  My sister has always loved our 313 Chorus Girls stencil.  She loves the glamorous style of it and her husband was not at all adverse to having rows of scantily clad women in his bathroom.  There were only two walls we could put this stencil on.  A single row of girls were stencilled around the vanity.   And on the opposite wall, several rows of girls were stencilled over the entire wall for a full company of chorus girls. You can see the stencil at http://www.stencil-library.com/docs/cat020.htm.

My niece is now 3 1/2 years old.  I had decorated her nursery by stencilling large panels of fabrics with stencils from our Japan range including large blossoms and butterflies.  At the time, my sister was living in a rental so could not paint or stencil the walls, but by stencilling up fabric panels which could be hung on the wall, matching blinds and other accessories for the room, the whole nursery looked decorated with colour and pattern.  When they moved, all the panels and fabrics moved with them and they are still being used in her room today.  Of course, now we could also paint and stencil the walls.  Because the fabric panels were bright, we kept the stencilling on the walls quite muted by taking one of the Japanese butterflies (JA125) and stencilling it in silver scattered all over the blue walls and ceiling.  The Japan range of stencils is a great source of simple, graphic stencils perfect for children's rooms http://www.stencil-library.com/docs/cat247.htm.

My sister has recently been making and selling fantastic hand embroidered items (including childrens' clothing and home accessories) with vintage designs.  Her range perfectly compliments her style.  I love the variety of designs she has and one of my favourite possessions is a set of pillowcases she embroidered for me using pin-up girl designs  (which I think is a fair exchange for my stencilling her house).  Her online shop is called Melys Baby.  She happily makes custom items as well.

Now she begins a new chapter in her life as she packs up and prepares to move to Florida where her landscape architect husband has a new job.  She is sad to leave her stencilled cottage, but I reminded her that soon she would be in a new home with loads of bare walls ripe for new stencilled schemes.  I also told her that it wouldn't take much inducement (well, maybe a few Melys Baby items) to get me to come over again when they were in their new home to help plan and stencil the new house.  No doubt, it will be featured in a future post. R.       

Spring is here!

As today is officially the first day of Spring, I thought I would celebrate by showcasing our Swallows stencil as they will be returning from their epic migration soon to come home to roost.  They are always a sign that Spring has arrived around here.  After a week of bitterly cold temperatures, high winds and snow showers, it is a beautiful sunny day here in the North of England and one can certainly believe Spring has arrived.  Our swallows stencil is a sheet of three different sized swallows that you can use in any configuration you like http://www.stencil-library.com/docs/exclusives01.html.  We simply stencilled ours with black paint in a swooping arc across the wall.  For the final touch, we applied a layer of gold glitter glaze over the top that is quite subtle but really sings when the light catches it.  Spring flowers are blooming in our garden and all the trees are in bud.  It is nice to see everything "springing" back to life again.  The only cloud on the horizon is that our clocks go forward this weekend which means an hour's less sleep! R.

Pattern on Pattern No. 1

One of our favourite decorating themes is pattern on top of pattern.  Stencils are perfect for creating layers of pattern.  The key to getting the look right without overwhelming a scheme is to get the balance of the two patterns not only right with each other, but also right with the rest of the room.  This is a theme we will come back to in future posts, but for now, we are showing you stencil pattern on top of stencil pattern.  First we stencilled the wall with an all over repeat pattern stencil, CH35 Passion Flower, from our Chinoiserie range http://www.stencil-library.com/docs/cat300.htm.  We wanted the base pattern to be quite strong and rich so stencilled in a burgundy colour that showed up well against the blue wall.  Once the wall was covered with pattern, we were ready to add the next layer of pattern.  For this scheme, we have chosen a motif, a chandelier stencil from our On-line Exclusives range http://www.stencil-library.com/docs/exclusives02.html.  This stencil works well in all kinds of rooms where an added dose of glamour is needed.  We cannot always afford glass drop chandeliers or have the room to hang them so a stencil is not a bad alternative.   A client recently purchased this stencil to repeat down the stairs in her hallway and around her dining room which I know will look fantastic.  The chandelier stencil comes with a length of chain so that it can be "hung" at any height you like whether it is at one height or different heights as it has been done in this photo.  It also comes in three layers: the first layer is the colour of the chandelier, in this case, white (but for on-trend glamour, go for black); the second layer allows you to put the background colour back in certain areas (if you have a stencilled background, you can also put the stencilled decoration back in); the third layer is to add the highlights to the drops.  We chose a paler version of our wall colour.  Note that the chandelier looks great over the background pattern, even though the background has been done with quite strong colours, because it is much larger in scale.  If you had wanted the chandelier to be the predominant pattern, then you could stencil your background pattern in much more muted or tone on tone colours.  If you are thinking about layering pattern in your room, then the key things to consider are the colours you want to use, the scale of the patterns and which pattern you want to emphasise (if any).  If you like this idea, keep a look out for more pattern on pattern inspiration in future posts.

Spike, the cat, does Allium

In a previous post, we introduced you to our cat, Spike.  Here he is again in our Allium stencil roomset photo.  Spike is more than willing to model for the camera (we are sure movie roles are to follow).  He quite often comes to work to help out and after an hour's worth of pen chewing and paper shuffling, collapses into my in-box for a much needed 4 hour power nap.  The Allium stencil is one of Spike's favourite stencils.  Using large motif stencils like this is perfect for impact on a particular area of your wall.  Pattern is very much "in" for interiors, but for a more contemporary take, limit your pattern to areas of your room rather than covering all your walls with it.  This stencil is a 3 layer stencil with an extendable stalk section so you can make your Allium as tall as you like or vary the height of each one as we have done here.  You can make them as bold or as subtle as you like with your colour choice.  We have stencilled our Allium in shades of brown, but for added impact, put them on a bright blue wall.  The layers of the stencil give the Allium depth and look so realistic (despite their larger than life size) that even Spike was fooled.  The Allium stencil can be found in our "Online Exclusives" section on our web-site http://www.stencil-library.com/docs/exclusives03.html.  When you are there, you might also want to look at our Fennel stencil too.R

Eye Bending Pattern

We thought we would share this picture of a room set that we recently stencilled.  I am showing it for no other reason than that I love it.  I have this same stencil on a canvas hung on my staircase. When I stare at the canvas colours start to creep into the pattern.  In reality there is nothing there but black on white.  I like the simplicity of the monochrome patterns and the only spot of colour being the chair.  The walls are stencilled with MD14 Pulsate  http://www.stencil-library.com/docs/cat273.htm from the Modern Design collection.  The floor shows a new stencil design from the Big & Bold collection.  It should be available in the next few weeks.  A couple of hours after this wall was stencilled we added giant flowers to it....   

This is the same wall with flowers from the forthcoming Big & Bold range of stencils.  The picture now makes me think of dresses in the 1960s.  The model would be wearing a white peaked PVC cap and of course her hair would have been cut by Vidal Sassoon.  This scheme could look great in a kitchen, or bathroom. It's very cheerfulness would make me smile and there is such scope for colourful accessories. H.

The Colour Issue

This month, Romantic Homes Magazine www.romantichomes.com gave a four page feature to one of the rooms in our home. It is Rachel's lounge and the colour scheme was originally inspired by a box of Kipling's Fondant Fancy cakes.

Rachel loves colour, fifties style and the British flag amongst a load of other things. She is a trawler of car boot fairs, flea markets, vintage shops and sites. What Rachel cannot find, she makes. The union flag lamp sitting atop the pile of old Vogue magazines is one of her creations.

Many of the pillows on Rachel's sofa are stencilled with designs from The Stencil Library. She has made others from vintage scarves. I often look out for interesting scarves in charity shops for her, but then end up keeping them. Sorry, Rachel.  A source for buying beautiful cushions in this style is a shop called RE in Corbridge, Northumberland.  We often take a Sunday trip out to RE and the coronation pillows were bought there. Their online shop is www.re-foundobjects.com.  Rachel sells some of her creations nearby at The Stencil Library shop in Stocksfield but her things are not on their web site yet.  Patience. H.

New Trends and White Cat

I recently visited the annual Design Interiors Exhibition in Birmingham, UK.  One of the new trends for 2007/8 was black on black.  That was fortuitous as we had just finished a room set showing gray black stencilling on a jet black floor and walls.  The design on both surfaces are part of our forthcoming Big and Bold collection.  When the range is uploaded to our web site, I will let you know.  Of course, the purrfect accessory for this colour scheme is Spike, the wonder-cat.  No, you cannot have him.

Here we have another gray on black scheme. This time the stencil used on the floor and walls is MD23-L Basket Weave.  It is part of the Modern Design range at The Stencil Library.  All the stencils in the Modern Design range come in 4 sizes.  Go for the larger sizes for increased scale.  http://www.stencil-library.com/docs/cat275.htm. H.