Evolution of Our Hallway.

For just being a hallway, ours has undergone quite a few changes in the short time we've owned our home. First and most importantly, we knocked down quite a few walls to create our open floor plan.  

Then once that happened, I knew I needed to spice up the blank slate.

I added a stencil...quite a daunting task for a first time stenciler, but boy was it worth it!

Then I added some much needed frames.  I thought that was good, but quickly realized it was still lacking something.

So I decided to add a lot more frames to create four mini-gallery walls.  I now realize I only showed off the first gallery that went up...and after that I lost steam on the project.  The frames were up for quite some time, but I never got around to filling them with meaningful art, words and photos.  {Please tell me I'm not the only one who moves slower than molasses at that task!!}

After my gallery walls were up, I surely thought our hallway was almost done.  I just needed to fill the frames find the perfect mirror to hang where my current "place-holder" mirror is.  Ohhhh, if only that was the case. ;)

To be perfectly honest, I just wasn't feeling the pattern I put up in the hallway anymore.  Don't get me wrong...I really did love it when it first went up!  At that point in time, it felt like a big risk to put a pattern up over our entire hallway.  I loved the extra something it added, but as time passed, I realized it wasn't enough for me.  My style is constantly evolving, and along with that evolution, I seem to gain courage to take more risks and try new things.

I was craving more.  I wanted a bold statement in our hallway, and after seeing YHL paint their floor, I knew the exact pattern I was searching for...Royal Design Studio's Suzani Silk Road.  

I placed my order the same day YHL's post went live, and I couldn't wait to paint over our stenciled hallway to give me a fresh new canvas.  Who would have everrrr thought I'd say I was happy to paint over something that took me 9 hours to complete?!  Certainly not this girl!!!

Shockingly, I didn't cringe on bit as I covered up the pattern.  {FYI...if I wasn't putting such a busy pattern over my previous stencil, I would have sanded the walls down before painting over it to make sure everything was smooth and there was no trace of the stencil left.  I took a risk not doing this, but I figured my bold pattern would be forgiving...and it was, phew!!!}  It took two coats to cover {mostly because I used a semi-gloss white paint for my stencil the first time around, but soon I was ready for my new pattern to go up!

I stuck with Behr's Gentle Rain as the base coat color for the hallway.  It's the same color we have in our living/dining great room, and it reads as a "true" gray on the walls in our house.  I used Behr's off-the-shelf ultra white paint in a flat finish for the stencil.  This stencil was quite time consuming and took twice as long as the first stencil I used.  The main reason for the added time was that I could cover the entire wall {top to bottom} with two passes of the first stencil since I bought it in the "professional" size.  This stencil took 4.5 passes because of it's size, and that meant I needed to wash my stencil twice because of the paint build up. Grrrrrrrr.....

Yes, my stencil got a bubble bath {with hot-ish water and dish soap}...which was quite effective in removing the paint and keeping all of the tiny pieces from bending out of shape. :)

This hallway project was quite the task to take on {I completed it during two days off from work}, but just like my first experience...the results were SO worth it!!!  I cannot wait to get some frames back up and complete this hallway! :)

Happy Friday, friends!  I hope you all have a great weekend! :)