Well, I’ve finally gone and done it. For the first time in my long and stencil-y life I have my very own vanity signature line of stencil paint: Royal Stencil Cremes. Available now for your stenciling pleasure in 10 deliciously shiny and sassy metallic colors.

You can read all about how fabulous Royal Stencil Creme paints are for stenciling projects here in this handy “How to Use Royal Stencil Cremes” booklet that my talented creative assistant Lauren and I created for you. Meanwhile, I just wanted to share part of a DIY Stencil project that Lauren was keen to do for her own apartment.

You see, Lauren is a very stylish girl with a fabulous jewelry collection culled from assorted Etsy artisans, and she wanted to create a special space to store them within easy reach.

So, we gathered some supplies including a cork board, foam roller, stencil brush, 1″ Blue Painter’s Tape, NEW Royal Stencil Creme colors, and a Japanese Scallops stencil from Royal Design Studio-one of her favorites.

First things first, we got ourselves some good quality paint to basecoat the cork board. I know that some people like to cheap out on paint, but seriously, it’s not worth it! Good paint will cover better, and even out nicely. We got Behr’s Premium Plus paint in Ultra White right off the shelf at Home Depot. Two coats did it.

A general rule with stenciling is that “a little paint goes a long way”. With Royal Stencil Cream colors, a little paint goes a REALLY long way. (That’s a good thing) It is very important to use a very “dry” brush to keep excess paint from seeping under the stencil edges. Lauren put just a small amount of Stencil Creme out on a paper or plastic plate and dipped  just the tips of the brush into the paint. Then she rubbed a bit on a clean part of the plate and offloaded EVEN MORE paint on a stack of good paper towels. The idea is to make sure the paint is distributed evenly throughout the brush bristles AND make sure that the brush doesn’t have an excessive amount of paint left on it. Trust me, you won’t need it.

Lauren centered the stencil on the cork board (see detailed instructions) and filled in the open stencil areas. Smart girl that she is, she waited until the brush was a bit dryer before moving to the edges and pushing the stencil into the corners-again avoiding paint “run-unders”. It’s so much funner NOT to have to do touchups. Note: If you EVER see nicely painted finger nails in a photo on here, you will know it’s NOT me!

The Royal Stencil Creme colors also work great for regular painting. Two thin coats around the frame (note the protective tape) covered the frame quite nicely. OK, so this was the short and sweet version. For the long, detailed version of this DIY stencil project click here.

Lauren used T-pins (Office Depot) to hang some of her favorite coordinating jewelry pieces. Yes, I’m jealous. Until she decides where on the wall to permanently hang the board, she just has it leaning up against the wall, which seems perfectly fine too! I was thinking if you have a lot of nice jewelry and plenty of wall space it would be super fun to create a series of boards in different patterns and colors and put together some curated jewelry collections on them. If you are someone who has that jewelry making and selling gene, this would make for some interesting displays!

Like I said, you can read all the details about Royal Stencil Creme colors here, but I just wanted to show you how beautiful the Antique Gold color worked on this woven placemat. It pretty much covered in one coat (OK, I DID add a tiny bit more here and there) and you can see how wonderfully crispy and clean the edges are. I am a very crispy and clean kind of girl, so this thrills me. Now, I’ve been doing this for awhile, but seriously, the Stencil Cremes are designed to make stenciling easy for beginners, pros, and everyone in between.

Would you love to be able to see all the colors firsthand? We have a card for that! We will send you a FREE hand painted color card with any Royal Design Studio stencil web order. Just be sure to check the order box on this page or ask for it if you call us.

Here are the handy links again:
Royal Stencil Creme Colors
Introduction to Royal Stencil Cremes
DIY Stencil Project: Jewelry Cork Board

Sea glass is the beautiful,  natural result of something “not so pretty” OR natural: littering. Glass bottles and jars that are tossed or washed into the sea get broken up and tossed about in the currents. Over time, the sharp edges of the shards of glass get worn down and the surface becomes etched by constant contact with waves, water, and sand.

Sea glass can be found in many colors, but some of the most lovely are soft shades of blue/green.

This beautiful photo of a set of doorways in Old Havana, as seen in the current issue of House Beautiful caught my eye. Not only because I LOVE historical architecture, and anything that looks distressed, crusty, rusty, faded, well-used and well-loved. The colors also reminded me of blue/green sea glass, and we have been using these colors quite a bit in our inspirational stencil pattern photos….

Our new Encantada Damask wall stencil from The Hearst Castle Collection.

Our delicate Oriental Vine allover wall stencil.

Yes, this one isn’t blue or green, but I had to include it, because the Endless Circle Lattice stencil pattern is shown in the door grillwork above, and the black and white add a certain “punch” to the page, don’t you think?

Back to blue, the Linked In modern wall stencil looks very fresh on a white wall….

…and the Large Phoebe’s Tulip Vine stencil (also from The Hearst Castle Collection) is perhaps the freshest Spring look of all! Authentic sea glass is becoming more and more rare, but you can certainly bring the soft colors into your home or decorative painting project with the right shades of paint!

Lisa of Lisa Goulet Design, an interior decorator in Ottawa, Canada recently posted a simple and elegant stencil transformation on her blog that is too chic not to share here.

Lisa’s foyer before. Nothing horrible here, yet nothing memorable either.

Lisa used our classic and simple Moorish Trellis stencil in a creamy white over the golden beige walls. The black painted doors add so much sophistication,  and would be a brilliant idea to copy if your daring and want to add some designer dash to a neutral space.

These other views give you a good idea how the stencil design is used in a limited area, yet relates well to the surrounding spaces. Do you have a Royal Design Studio stencil transformation up your sleeve that you would like to see posted here?? If so, please share!

Are you loving all the digital design magazines that are popping up everywhere these days?? Personally, I prefer the feel of paper over plastic keyboards, but I find it exciting that so much design inspiration is coming through amongst the email clutter I receive daily. I was SUPER excited last week, when I got the email announcing the latest edition of High Gloss magazine. This is the second issue of this magazine, which is the brainchild of Paloma Contrares of the blog, La Dolce Vita.

While quickly scrolling the current issue and guzzling coffee, I nearly choked when I saw one of my original stencil designs, Chez Sheik, featured on a page spread called “Get the Look” of  Martyn Lawrence Bullard.

Now, I had previously not heard of Mr. Lawrence-Bullard (though I have probably seen his work multiple times!), and I dare say it’s quite possible he has still never heard of me, but I am certainly happy for the association-however small. He will be one of the design stars on the upcoming Bravo show, Million Dollar Decorators (which looks like wicked fun!)  Besides designing rooms for celebs such as Elton John and Cher, he has designed a seriously awesome furniture line, as well as fabrics, rugs, and candles. I had a grand old time looking through his company website at projects like these…

Yes, that’s a pink and white stenciled ceiling with a red rug. I especially loved seeing this as I am planning on doing a deep pink ceiling in my home office that already has an alcove done in deep metallic red tones. More favs….

I had wanted to do big sliding doors in my work studio, but didn’t. Something like this “would have” been nice!

I’m not sure if this is wallpaper or stenciling, but it’s divine and Cheryl Tiegs agrees!

Amazing embroidery and the hanging tapestry reminds me of the black and gold mural we did in Marrakech.

Simply put. I want that arched carving and mirrored wall!

This is the same wall pattern from above. Check out the chest here.

I could TOTALLY curl up with a book on this couch-and I love nuts!

Not many people would enjoy this much pattern in a room-but I’m not one of THOSE people. Hope you enjoyed! Do you have a favorite?

It’s that time of year again! Time to reveal my age longevity, and turn my attention to the upcoming annual IDAL (International Decorative Artisans League) Convention. I joined this organization (formerly The Stencil Artisans League) in 1983 as member #31 as a wide-eyed stencil-obsessed novice.  After dibbling and dabbling around with what I wanted to do when I grew up, I attended my first convention as both a stencil company exhibitor and a teacher in 1994-and the rest is “history”. Actually, quite a bit of history. I just added the years up on my fingers and toes and came up with the realization that this will be my 18th year in a row to continue with that tradition! Good grief!!

The organization and  convention, like most of us,  the “industry”, and the world, has undergone many changes and weathered some storms, but it HAS SURVIVED as THE place to to be, see, and be seen in the decorative painting biz. The annual convention combines one-stop shopping for the best selection of instructors, classes, new products, inspiration, networking and (dare I say) partying. It’s a great time to come together as a community, recharge our creative juices, and reconnect with what inspired us to devote our lives to decorative painting in the first place.

I will be teaching a 4 hour hands on workshop called Shining up Your Portfolio. The focus is on incorporating metal leaf, metallic foils, patinas, distressing and more with paint, stained, and plastered finishes. Each student will leave with four loverly samples, as well as our new, enlarged Japanese Hydrangea stencil and Feathered Damask stencil.

I will also be repeating the Double Vision class from last year with the incomparable Helen Morris from The Stencil Library. There are some really fabulous classes being offered this year, and the online registration makes it SO easy.You can also easily see all of the class listings on the new Artisphere Online site, which is where you will also find the official online magazine of IDAL.

This year’s convention will be helf July 20-24 in Hampton, VA, which should be a relatively easy drive for those of you living on the East Coast. As always, the Expo Hall will be open to the general public for a nominal daily fee. When I’m not teaching, I’ll be in the booth and demoing stenciling techniques nearby. Come see me!!

You know that saying, “everything old is new again”? Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to apply to the aging human body, but it sure seems to apply to the popularity of stenciled pattern through the ages. After falling out of favor in the early part of the 2oth century, stencils enjoyed  a major resurgence following the Bicentennial celebration of America in 1976.  I became heavily involved obsessed with stencils in the 80′s as I spoke about in this recent post, and watched stencils as an elegant wall decorating choice grow exponentially through the 90′s and early 2000′s.  As fashion trends come and go, so too do decorating trends, and wall stenciling gave up ground to other types of surface treatment options such as Venetian Plaster, gilding, and various other mediums, and eventually gave way altogether to that awful trend of JUST plain, unadorned paint.  Phew! Glad THAT seems to have passed quickly!

Well…..stencils seem to be BACK in a very BIG way these day (happy dance!) as a whole new generation of young designers and home decorators are discovering stenciling anew! Case in point: this lovely post recently on our Royal Design Studio stencils by Brittany at A Daily Dose of Harri Ette. (I am reposting her photo montage above) Brittany is not alone! I see bloggers worldwide now ”discovering” stencils as an outlet for creativity and personal design expression in their own homes. Another example is Angel Li’s post on 77+Love. So, if you hang around long enough you can be be “trendy” all over again!

Angela Perrone of Divine Rooms has a wonderful blog post today on how she used our Royal Design stencil Corsini Damask to “rescue” a tired Venetian Plaster finish with softly blended metallic pattern.

Under normal circumstances, you can’t rely on wall stencils to “save” a bad finish, but this venetian plaster treatment just needed a little more pleasing color and some pattern action, and Angela’s “fix” worked beautifully! You will enjoy following Angela’s blog as well; she is a lovely soul with a heartfelt “voice”. It was a great pleasure to have Angela along on my last painting trip to Marrakech and I’m looking forward to her company again on my June painting adventure to Barcelona! There are still 2 spots open for this trip if you’d like to join us!!

PS You can find the Corsini Damask Stencil here.

I have a little mini-obsession going with artistic  typography. I think it started with the typography floor I designed for one of our project in Marrakech. It continued on with the It’s Just Your Type collection we released through Modello Designs. Lately, I’ve been focusing on stencil designing and have been exploring ideas for a collection of typography stencils for Royal Design Studio.

The first few stencils for the collection are now ready and I’m really excited to share them. Here we show the whole Springtime in Paris Typography stencil set. Each of these stencils is sold separately, but I actually envisioned them all working together as a layered treatment.

The first layer of this look is a repeating wallpaper stencil of a French poem about Spring! How’s that for timing? You can read the interpretation of the poem on the website.

Of course you can create a sweet focal point by just using the sweet Paris Postage Stamp stencil by itself.

Here is another version of the whole stencil set that is a sample on a subtly distressed plaster finish that I created for a uncoming stencil workshop I will be teaching in May at my friend Gary Lord’s Prismatic Painting Studio. I am really interested to know what you think of these, as I have so many possible ideas swimming around in my head! If you think I’m on the right track with these, just say the word!

Stencil flashback!! I was going through a stack of old magazines lately and came across the May 2003 edition of Romantic Homes magazine. Way, WAY back in 2001 I created a whole training program for combining stencil patterns with decorative finishes, plasters, and textures called Extraordinary Stenciled Effects. At the time, I was almost exclusively working with products from the Faux Effects, International product line. Decorative finishing was just starting to BOOM, as an interior design option AND as a career for creative entrepreneurs. Teaching studios were popping up all over the country to meet the demand to train artisans and service their needs. It was a heady time and I think all of us in the industry are sorely missing it! I had been traveling almost monthly to various studios around the country to teach my techniques in hands on workshops. It was a fabulous, if not exhausting, experience. To meet the demand, and stay home a bit more, I shot a series of 6 instructional videos, and created a series of recipe cards and a supporting technique manual. Many of the techniques were put into action in my own home, which was featured in a number of books and publications, including Romantic Homes.

My living room, with the textured faux silk linen walls stenciled with our Fortuny damask pattern. I don’t have any desire to change the walls here-they are very soft, neutral, and classic!

My kitchen which still looks very similar and is in severe need of a redesign!!

My former home office. This was my favorite room, with the faded stenciled damask stripes, stenciled velvet pillows, and a cozy little desk area I build into the former closet.

My old bedroom with stenciled trompe l’oeil mouldings and stenciled panel treatment below. There is actually a stencil gallery here on this blog with more house photos that you can browse through. I titled this post “Vintage Stencils”, but (with a few exceptions), I think most of these looks stand the test of time. Stencils are definitely an up and coming “trend” again, which is GREAT to see. It’s a “trend” I’ve been happily riding for 27 years now…..:)

Here’s a PDF of the full article from Romantic Homes with additional stencil photos.

It’s been awhile since I updated you on my adventure of becoming a licensee for stencil patterns from the amazing Hearst Castle Collection. I have been holding off because I had plans to write a multi-part article about it for the new Artisphere Online magazine. Now, I can take the opportunity to update you on two things at once! How’s THAT for time management? First, the Artisphere Online is the new digital magazine of IDAL, the International Decorative Artisan’s League (formerly SALI). I’ve been an active member of this fabulous organization since 1984 (yes, you read that right!) This new online mag is going to be fabulous ongoing resource for decorative painting industry news and inspiration, with articles, tips, and how-to’s from top artists in our industry. I am honored to have been asked to be a regular contributor, and I encourage you to check it out OFTEN as new content will added on a continuous basis.

My first article presents an introduction to Hearst Castle and the two iconic people behind this national treasure, William Randolph Hearst and the amazing architect, Julia Morgan.

I was thrilled to make the trip up to San Simeon from San Diego last January for a behind the scenes, private tour of the estate to learn more about the history and photograph inspiration for our upcoming Hearst Castle Collection stencil line for Royal Design Studio and Modello Designs.

My article and accompanying photo gallery includes just a sampling of the photos I took there and I’ll be sharing more in future article. I’m just including a few here in this post to inspire you to read the article and check out the whole Artisphere Online magazine while you’re there! As you can see, there is a wealth of pattern inspiration at Hearst Castle for me to develop new stencil designs from, including Julia Morgan’s fabulous architectural drawings. Mygoal is to introduce the new stencil line at the IDAL Convention this July in Hampton, VA. Maybe I will see you there!!