Well, summer has come and gone (OH SO quickly!) once again. The kids are back in school and this is traditionally the time of year when lots of people’s thoughts turn to home decorating projects. After all, the holidays are approaching and fall is a great time to freshen things up a bit! We have some freshening up projects going on around here-Royal Design Studio and Modello Designs website redesigns to be exact. Even this pretty but aging  blog. It’s a ridiculous amount of work, but going to be SO worth it…..someday…..soon…..I hope. So, I’ve been doing some housekeeping at Royal Design Studio. Trying to figure out which stencil patterns to “let go” and which to keep. I’ve been selling some of these stencils since the mid 90′s and some of the color and finish representations are looking a bit, well, dated. But just like that old piece of boring brown but highly functional furniture, many of these stencil designs have stood the test of time and could continue to do so if they just had a fresh coat of paint and some perkier colors added. And so, here you go! Some refreshed classic stencil patterns from Royal Design Studio….

Our Granada Border Stencil looks very cool and current stenciled in white as a backsplash pattern over a chalkboard paint finish.

The Delicate Floral Panel stencil pattern is generally used as a wall stencil, but it also makes a great furniture stencil when used in the panels of a large armoire.

We have a small series of stencils inspired by the tragically romantic ruins of Pompeii. This Botanical Column Stencil , with its delicate vines and birds works equally well in other romantic settings. This wall stencil repeats vertically and can be used as a single element of wall decor or repeated around a room for a patterned stripe effect.

Our Large Rosie motif stencil has an chic, Art Deco look. It’s adorable for nurseries or children’s room, especially when stenciled in shades of lipstick pink!

The Brocade Border Stencil has been one of my favorite stencil patterns for years. I love the delicate vine and berries. It has an Indian vibe to it, especially when paired with a punched tin mirror.

Another funky floral stencil pattern that works great for nurseries and little girl’s rooms is the Deco Doily stencil from our Modern Options Stencil collection. This two layer stencil allows you to introduce a coordinating color for the background which really sets it off from the wall color.

The Floral Medallions stencil set is based on ancient Middle Eastern patterns, but it looks cool, fresh and contemporary in minty green and lilac colors. It’s very quick and easy to scatter stencil motifs like this around a room for a custom wallpaper effect.

The great thing about stencils is that you can completely change the look and feel of the designs simply by changing the colors. So, do you have some freshening up projects planned for this fall?

Well, it is just one month away today that my 4th and next Peacock Painting trip begins to lovely Peacock Pavilions in Marrakesh, Morocco. We have a fabulous  group going but there is still space and time available if you’d like to join us on October 1-11! You can find more trip and itinerary details here.

I’ve written about these trips about a million times, so you may know that I coordinate these painting adventures with the super chic and creative Maryam from My Marrakesh. Maryam has no limits to offering up great spaces to decorate with paint, or exotic inspiration to draw from. On past trips we’ve applied all sorts of inspired decoration to varying surfaces throughout Peacock Pavilions-a boutique hotel and retreat site just outside of Marrakesh.

There was an Art Deco Mural inspired by Rateau,

stair risers based on henna patterns,

ceiling patterns taken from inlaid camel bone furniture

and antique suzani fabrics. We’ve done lovely lace and typography floors,

and even an entertainment tent stenciled with Fez embroidery inspired patterns.

We have several projects planned for this next trip, the largest which will be another stenciled concrete floor with the look of patterned indigo fabric. The floor will be the base of a new, open air tent created for outdoor yoga practice and more.

As I begin to work on the designs, I thought I would share some of the inspiration I am working from: Nigerian resist-dyed indigo.

Resist techniques such as tie-dye, folded and stitched resist, wax batik and starch resist are common methods of surface decoration throughout the West African region, and the Yoruba of Nigeria are masters of the indigo-dying process. The two examples above are done with a starch-resist method, where the cloth is carefully folded and the intricate patterns hand drawn using starch made from cassava flour and sharpened quill from a large bird.

Stitched resist patterned are achieved also by folding the fabric, but raffia is used here to stitch the patterns into the cloth. When dipped,these areas resist the indigo dye, which is infused over multiple layers to achieve the rich inky blue/black color. The level of detail and intricate quality of this work is quite humbling for me as I attempt to interpret these into easily usable stencil designs! I am really looking forward to this, though, as I think that the concrete stained and painted floor that we create will be AMAZING!

Serendipitously, I just happened to stumble across this post on Indigo on a lovely blog called This is Love Forever, by super stylist Kayte Terry which featured the above fabric sample. One of the previous Peacock Painting trips caused me to design a whole collection of Moroccan stencils based on zelij tile patterns and this is one that we have called Large Moroccan Inlay. I think that doing this pattern in random sized dots would be be brilliant and pondering if this could be replicated on dark denim fabric using a bleach pen?!?! Hmmmm.

Just have to say it one more time guys….if you are interested in going on an amazing journey to Morocco with us, you can find more trip and itinerary details here.

Continuing a theme from last week, I have a few more Stencil Wall-ternatives to share today!

Amy from Playing Sublimely  is lucky enough to have a skilled carpenter husband! Who’s NOT jealous of that?!  He created a custom built-in cabinet at the end of a hallway which Amy promptly painted with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.

Not happy with her first try, she tried, tried again, this time opting for a more classic paint treatment and the decidedly “un”classic and ultimately COOL look of stenciling our Zebra Stripe stencil pattern on the back to show off her pretty white dishes. Check out this post also by Amy to see some more Royal Design Studio stencils used on her walls. I’m sure you’ll find her home dreamy and inspirational-especially if you like formal, classic design.

Back to the floor, here is another fun stenciled sisal rug project from Tam at Sew Dang Cute. A project like this is super fast, easy, and economical. Sometimes it’s the little details that add so much!

Royal Design Studio and Modello Designs customer Terry Leibenguth recently sent in some photos of a stenciled ceiling project that I just love!  This one features our ever lovely Allover Flourish stencil on the ceiing of a powder bath.

Check out the added bling Terry added with glitter and crystals.

Crystal embellishments to stenciling has become increasingly popular, and I think that Terry added just the right amount to accent the stencil pattern and tie it in to the lovely light fixtures.

We love to share our customer’s stencil projects. They inspire us and hopefully inspire you too! If you have a stencil project yould like to share and share alike, please send appropriate photos to melanie@royaldesignstudio.com.

Stenciling walls with allover patterns to create a wallpaper effect  is “all the rage” this season, and all I can say about that is……YEAH! I started creating damask-inspired allover stencils for Royal Design Studio back in the last century (gulp!) and it’s great to still be seeing both our classic and modern stencil designs being put to good use all over the web these days. Stencils, of course, are the ultimate decorating tool for adding personalized pattern to MANY different surfaces, though, and I’m super thrilled to be able to share some wall-ternative ideas with you here. It’s very rewarding to see our creative blogging friends mixing it up with these fab how-to-stencil projects. Even greater is how they take care to share with their readers how to achieve these looks. Case(s) in point:

This sisal rug stenciling post by uber-talented Marian on Miss Mustard Seed. She used our sweet and simple Daisy Chain border stencil on the BACK of an inexpensive rug.

Stenciling on a ceiling is a great wall-ternative! Yes, yes, it’s a bit more challenging when you have your hands over head, BUT the end results are dramatic, unexpected, and amazing! Chelsy shares her and her hubby’s adventures in  how to stencil a ceiling on  B  Couture Photography using our modern Linked In stencil.

Interested in a smaller project perhaps? Hani at Craftionary shares how to make a stenciled magnetic photo board with our lovely Encantada Damask stencil.

Have you noticed how custom window treatments are SO expensive? Have you ever thought of stenciling your own inexpensive fabric and creating a completely custom treatment? Yeah, me neither, but check out this easy stenciled faux Roman Shade by Jennifer at Tatertots and Jello (cutest blog name award!) using our Chain Link stencil pattern, and you WILL be inspired!

Would you like to see MORE wall-ternatives? Just so happens I have a few more up my sleeve for the next post….:)

Guess who’s going to be talking design and stencils on Design Talk Radio THIS Wednesday at 2pm EST/ 11am PST??

Did you guess?? Yes, I will be chatting about stencils and decorative painting “live” with Carrie for about an hour. If you miss it or want to tune in later while enjoying a glass of wine or coffee (you get to pick your poison!) there will be a recording available. Hope you can check it out either way!

The International Decorative Artisans League Convention was quite a success! Attendance was somewhat low, with just over 200 artisans attending, but with a renewed interest in stencils we had a busy booth and I was thrilled that both my classes were sold out! Before too much time goes by (just where DOES that time go?) Iwanted to share a bit of the action….

In addition to my classes and booth, I was asked to do some demos on the trade show floor. I came up with a couple of new concepts that I thought would be fun to share: a crackled Greek goddess on patinated gold leaf and a colorful paisley pattern done with metallic foils. Both of these were done using some new Modello masking stencil patterns that we’ve just added.

Unfortunately, with all that was going on I never DID get to the large Greek panel I had planned, which will have to wait for another day, but I did manage to finish the large paisley canvas which I just love!

I am loving the large scale of this and think it would be ab fab done as a headboard or across a tri-panel floor screen, or ????

Walking around the trade show floor, it was very exciting to see my Royal Design Stencil and Modello masking stencil patterns used abundantly in other booths.

Artist David Lusk had a particularly elegant display in Golden’s Proceed booth!

Michelle Delgado, of Wonderfaux Studios had a super cool rusted plaster sample using our Grand Damask stencil.

My faux buddies Krista Vind and Cindy Everett filled their The Studio Destin booth with iCoat floor and countertop finishes featuring our Modello stencil patterns and also had lots of stencil samples showing for their wall and cabinetry classes. This tabletop was a huge hit!

Besides the trade show, we were well represented in the classrooms as well! Lottie Banner and Micki Coles used a variety of Royal Design Studio stencils in their “Cracked Up” class.

If all these fabulously inspiring photos are making you sorry you missed the International Decorative Artisan’s League Convention, fear not! There is always next year…..July 2012 in Reno, NV.

Whoa! Wait!! It’s THURSDAY already?! Did anyone else just blink and find the week almost gone??? I was meaning to post this on Monday (well, longer than that actually) because this is something kind of BIG!

A few months ago, we received a request for a bunch of stencils from our Moroccan stencil collection from Better Homes and Gardens for a possible feature in their July issue. They had actually chosen stencils to use from another company already (not sure which one), but when they saw ours they decided to make a switcheroo. They “hinted” at  a possible cover shot, but couldn’t say for sure, and we waiting patiently with fingers drumming….

You can imagine how THRILLED we were to see our Small Chez Ali stencil used on multiple pillows on the cover, as well as some great interior shots! You can imagine that we are cutting a LOT of Endless Circle Lattice stencils these days with this beautiful blue wall stencil application to showcase it!

There is even more great stenciling shown on another page where they used our Moroccan Inlay stencil on even more stenciled pillows, and the darling Chicken Stitch stencil on some curtains. As you would expect from Better Homes and Gardens, they did a fabulous jot with the styling and photography, and we are so appreciative to see our stencils put to such gorgeous use!

More stencil excitement! Just yesterday, a friend turned my on to this “Decorating Rules You Can Break” feature on the Better Homes and Gardens website that shows our Japanese Kyoto stencil cleverly used as a feature panel between two curtains on a wall. How cool is this! A lot of times you don’t necessarily want to stencil an allover pattern “allover” and the coordinating curtains provide a nice frame. I could totally see this idea working on a bed wall, with the stencil pattern acting as a “headboard” that is softly framed by the fabric!

But wait! There’s even MORE to this stencil tale!! One of the bloggers featured in the July Better Homes and Gardens article is the talented designer, Lauren Liess of PureStyleHome. While I was enjoying perusing her delightful blog yesterday, I stumbled upon a great stencil project that she did for her nursery.

This clever canopy is actually a canvas dropcloth that she stenciled with our Small Indian Paisley stencil motif in a repeat pattern to create a damask effect. Notice how she repeated the same motif on the front drop of the canopy to create a stenciled border. Simply. Brilliant!

Lauren has some other smashing stenciling in her home, via a classic Ralph Lauren stencil pattern.

Isn’t this a great look?? I love the color and, even more, the fact that her sweet husband actually did the stenciling for her. Good man!!

Well, that’ s my big stencil news for this week. Pretty exciting, huh??

In the last post, I shared a beautiful example of a building facade with a sgraffito pattern. If you are familiar with the dimensional or “embossed” stencil method, it appears as if a giant stencil was placed over the side of the building and a layer of thick plaster was troweled through to create a raised image. Sgraffito is actually a process where a wet layer of plaster is placed over a contrasting color of plaster, the design is transferred, and the plaster is carved (or scratched) back to reveal the first layer in the shape of the design. You will find examples of the sgraffito method of decoration used extensively in Italy and other European cities, as well as Morocco. I have posted Italian examples of sgraffito here before, and many beautiful examples from Marrakech as well. I have even tried to reproduce the look of Sgraffito with our Modello patterns.

In Barcelona it was used quite a bit in the older Gothic Quarter.

Alas, this labor intensive means of decoration has become something of a lost art.

The common use of sgraffito may have had its last swan song at the beginning of the 20th century in the Eixample district of Barcelona, as they were constructing the beautifully detailed buildings that grace this area.

According to our guide on a recent tour there, at that time time labor was cheap and highly skilled craftsman were plentiful, so sgraffito was a “cheap” alternative to more expensive stone facades.

We can be thankful for this today, as the Modernisme movement of Catalunya has left us this gift in the city of Barcelona.

Some of the most stunning examples of Sgraffito can be found at Casa Amatllar, on the “Block of Discord”, right next to Gaudi’s Casa Batlló. This beautiful space, built by architect Puig i Cadafalch has just recently been opened to the public for tours. The photos above show just the open entrance area that anyone can walk into from the street. I unfortunately MISSED the opening time for the tour, but two of the ladies on our group were lucky enough to join a guided tour of the building and IT IS AMAZING with all the walls and ceilings FULL of decorative sgraffito (they sneaked some pics!). They will be closing it down again in a couple of months for a full renovation, but I can guarantee that this is the first place I will try to visit when I return to Barcelona!

Last image via flickr

On my recent trip to Barcelona, I got up early one day (well, OK, 8am-which IS early when you’ve just flown intercontinental from the West Coast!) to take a nice, leisurely walk around our hotel neighborhood.

We were staying in my favorite area, the Eixample district (roughly promounced EYE-SHAM-PLA)

This well-planned area of Barcelona was constructed in the late 19th-early 20th centuries after they tore down the Roman wall surrounding the old Gothic Quarter of the city to expand westward and connect it to the outlying small towns of Gracia, Sants, and others.

Designed in a strict grid pattern by Ildefons Cerda, the blocks are actually octagonal in shape. The chamfered corners were designed to bring in more sunlight and ventilation. You REALLY notice these as you are walking, because each time you reach a “corner” you have to walk a bit more to get to the place you can actually cross the street.

The Eixample district includes some of the finest examples of Modernista architecture in Barcelona, including the major works of Antoni Gaudi, such as Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila, and Casa Batlló (shown above).

But beyond that, it’s one of the most pleasant city neighborhoods you will find. This is high density living at its finest. I particularly love the rows and stacks of divinely decorative balconies….

…and the special touches and attention to detail on the facades….

…including my favorite design detail, sgraffito. You will see amazing examples of this decorative plaster technique on almost every block. This one above is one of my favorites, but I have more sgraffito to share with you when we continue our walk-in the next post!

Having two companies can be a lot like having two children. You love each one passionately and strive to give them equal amounts of time and attention. It can be hard to maintain that balance, though, when one or the other becomes more “needy”. And so, while lately I have been focusing a lot on my “oldest” child Royal Design Studio, which sells reusable, “designer” mylar stencils since 1994, my “baby” Modello Designs (one-time-use vinyl masking stencils) has been feeling neglected and is frankly starting to get a bit jealous. And so, my darling Modello Designs, I am committing some quality time to spend with you, and promise to show you off and brag about you here once a week!

This will not be hard, as you can do amazing things! While your Royal stencil sister excels at creating beautiful repetitive pattern, YOU truly shine when it comes to creating custom-designed, custom fit patterns. Take this recent project by my good friend and Italy traveling buddy, Gary Lord, of Prismatic Painting Studio and Gary Lord Wall Options.

Gary worked with our in-house custom Modello designer extraordinaire, Michelle, to modify some of our existing designs for an amazing kitchen cabinet conversion.

Each Modello vinyl stencil pattern was designed to fit the various door panel spaces perfectly, so that Gary could simply place them and focus on his artistry rather than the frustration of trying to fit the patterns to individual spaces.

Gary used an elegant trompe l’oeil painting technique that Alison Wooley shared on one of our painting trips to Italy.

Using multiple values of the same color and applying some hand painted touches over a quickly stenciled base color that was applied through the Modello patterns, Gary created a kitchen masterpiece! What will our Modello customers cook up next?! Stay tuned, and see….