Japan meets France in English bedroom

In their winter 2007 issue, Window and Wall Ideas magazine featured our JA119 Chrysanthemum Panel stencil.

I have recently finished a stencilling commission using the same design. The JA119 was stencilled onto walls and fabrics.

This project gave me an excuse to use my new mushroom. What is a mushroom? It's a tool that I bought from Buon Fresco. It's basically a dense foam applicator twisted and wired to make three quite different surfaces.

The originator of the mushroom told me that it is the best tool for applying waxes and plasters through a stencil. As I have little to do with either medium, I invite readers to leave their nuggets of expertise and mushroom related experiences in our comments section. I do fancy taking one of Buon Fresco's plaster courses. They are relocating soon so it will have to wait. The mushroom was perfect for applying a monotone coverage of ivory emulsion (latex) paint. I wanted a heavy, uniformed finish with no paint runs and that is what I got. The finished result was a little stark for this particular client, but that is not the fault of the tool.

I needed more softness in the design so I took a large stencil brush and applied a little Venetian Rose colour to the chrysanthemums. On the ivory wall, I stenciled the medallions in pink and on the pink wall they were predominantly ivory.

I found a silk cushion cover at BHS. It was inexpensive and a perfect colour match. A partial medallion was stenciled onto it.

Our decoration was built around an elaborate French style bed. The bed and fabrics were chosen first and then the rest of the look came easily. Because the bed was huge and heavy looking, I broke up the vast expanse of ivory colour by thinning the rose stencil paint with some acrylic glaze.

The rose colour was brushed onto the carved recesses on the bed. Then using a clean stencil brush, I stippled the surface of the glaze. Next, the overspill was wiped away with a clean cloth. The function of glaze is that it slows down the drying time of the paint allowing one to manipulate the finish and wipe away excess colour with ease.