Textured Walls | Stencils

I guess "Textured Walls" is going to be a series... I've already talked about the absence of color and painting techniques in my two previous posts.

So, continuing on the theme of creating dimension and making your rooms more dynamic, you can also add a stencil to your walls. I know, you may be thinking, "like my grandma's kitchen?!?!" 

sorry to whoever owns this home...

But no, I am talking about something a little more fun and funky like... (the following pictures are not my designs)

add some stenciled leaves in 3 different colors to accent the perimeter of your bed

be a minimalist

provide a focal point on the wall

make the wall purposeful by adding some hooks; it looks very city-like and clean

Or how about something a little more soft and elegant, replacing the hassles of wallpapering...?

On the second floor of our home, we wanted to add an accent wall after remodeling our living room and kitchen. But we wanted to add something more than a coat of paint. Instead of making my own wall stencil, I decided to free-hand paint a tree with some birds. Although, we did get a stencil created from FedEx Kinkos to add a bible verse to the wall (see pictures below).

Below are the steps we took to create our DIY stencil family tree accent wall:

     1. Painted the wall with Martha Stewart's Cement Gray

see...I told you I like gray :)

     2. Free-hand sketched the design on paper

     3. Measured the wall into quadrants to make the painting proportional to the drawing. 

     4. Began painting the tree (used Martha Stewart's Magnetite)

See the leftover blue tape for the quadrants

     5. Painted the birds in Glidden's Mustard Seed to provide a splash of color to the wall

     6. Hung family photos

     7. Put up the wall decal.

finished project

What I love about the design is the flexibility to put your pictures wherever you want on the wall. Also, the wall is a neutral color so it will compliment almost any other wall colors in your space. If you want to change your "splash of color", simply repaint the birds to a different color. I might do a turquoise of some sort next.

Happy stenciling!

{Rashida}

PS: If you don't want to create a stencil, you can just order decals...they do the same trick. :)

Textured Walls | Absence of Color

In addition to using found materials to give dimension and texture to the wall (see Textured Walls | Painting Techniques), you can also use the absence of color to provide texture.

Before my husband and I got married, he bought a new house and was living with his friend from college. This house was brand new, which essentially means that everything was shades of beige. Eggshell. Cream. Buff. Bone. Cosmic latte. Or whatever other clever names paint people come up with. From my perspective, beige means boring. Even though I wouldn't be moving in for another couple months, my first design challenge, was to redesign the master bedroom.

Pretty bare...

pretty basic...

and pretty uninspiring

I wanted my hubby's room (soon to be my room) to have some elegance to it, and there's nothing that a coat of paint can't fix... and some furniture maybe :).

I was inspired by this photo I found online:

I am really into gray. It's so peaceful, elegant, and neutral. As you can see in the picture, this room has paneling and molding and all of this other fancy stuff. At the time, we weren't that adventurous (or knowledgeable) regarding molding, so the best tools in our tool belts were paint rollers, tape, and a laser-leveler.

A couple hours (and a few trips to furniture stores) later, we completely transformed the room into something suitable then for a bachelor's room and, now our master bedroom.  

Remember what I said earlier about the absence of color? Well, this is where it can provide texture.  We created a similar pattern as in the inspiration photo, using tape to mark off the areas that were to remain beige. Of course, there are still some things to do to make the room "shiny", but that is step two. 

FUN FACT OF THE DAY: In my Art class (2-D Foundations), I learned about negative and positive shapes. Negative shapes recede in a picture; positive shapes advance in a picture. In the case of our bedroom wall, you would think that the gray is the positive since it is the painted shape. But actually, the white is serving as the positive shape because it pops... seemingly as if it is painted over the gray. Interesting, eh?

Until next time,

{Rashida}

Textured Walls | Painting Techniques

See, I told you my next post will be about interior design!

When I was younger (like high school), my family and I decided to repaint my two younger sisters' rooms. Instead of just doing one color of paint, they wanted to use two. And instead of just painting the walls in any normal fashion, they wanted to put "texture" on their walls by using a sponge.

It would look a little something like this

These days, you can use just about anything to texturize your walls – a sponge, a paintbrush, bubble wrap, a rag, and even a plastic grocery bag! Each of these seemingly simple and easy-to-find objects can be used as different techniques to create greater dimension and movement to your walls without the hassle of wallpaper. Below are some pictures of different techniques to add some interest to your bedroom, bathroom, or hallway!

Cleaning brush to create a linear texture

Paper towel or rag (known as "ragging")

Faux Wood technique.. it's not real wood!

If you are interested in doing this yourself, there are plenty of videos online. While at Home Depot for my Materials & Resources class last week, we had a chance to test this decorative painting toolkit which not only shows you different techniques, but also gives you the tools and step-by-step instructions to create different patterns. It doesn't take much, but you can get professional looking results in just a weekend!

I think that I am going to give this basket weave technique a try in our master bathroom, which my husband has been trying to get me to improve for months, but I hadn't yet found inspiration.

Basket Weave Technique in the Martha Stewart Kit

I'll report back about how it goes!

TTFN,

{Rashida}

Please note: Most of the times, examples shown in magazines or demonstration booklets are done on smooth walls like dry wall. In California, our walls are already textured to prevent the appearances of jarring cracks in the walls from earthquakes. Thus different decorative techniques may not always look like the pictures. My advice — test it out first in an inconspicuous area first.

Why "Inside the Frame"?

Naming a blog, a new company, or even your kid (!) for that matter is no easy feat. People are becoming more and more clever — if that's how you would like to describe it — these days and it seems like the rest of us are just trying to catch up.

Thankfully my younger sisters and I had a made-up band name when we were younger. (We were never actually in a band, nor could we sing or play any instruments, but that hasn't stopped many "artists" these days.) "Inside the Frame" could be a cool band, but it also seems fitting for a blog name.

Me and the younger sisters

Frames are used for pictures as decorations. They are used to construct a house, a door, a window, etc. In photography or cinematography, the artists uses their view finders to frame their subject at hand, providing the viewers a window into the life of their subject. "Inside the Frame" peeks into my perspective of interior design, giving you a "frame of reference" for how I have shaped my design aesthetic. This includes some basics from my classes, designs and decorations that I have found to be neat and, being extremely vulnerable, showing what I've tried out in my own house...eek(!).

This is not my house, but I wish it was. This is pretty cool!

...And that's where "Inside the Frame" came from.

For all you bloggers out there that don't have made-up childhood band names or don't have the audacity that some celebrities have when naming their kids, try this site... it may help you.

My next post will be something actually related to Interior Design...I promise. :)

Hasta luego!

{Rashida}

Welcome!

Helloooooo from sunny California...well at least it is today! My husband encouraged me to start this blog so here goes nothing.

thanks hunny! (Me and the hubby in Singapore)

After being out of college for 5 years and working in Workplace Strategy, I recently returned to school to pursue a certificate in Interior Design. Why? Well, I like doing home projects such as painting, decorating, organizing, etc and apparently my skills are not too shabby. So I decided to make my foray into interior design more official by actually taking classes from some professionals.

The goal of this blog is to share some things I've learned, some things I think are neat, and some things that I have done around my house.

Stay tuned for what's coming next.

Enjoy!

Parasailing in Bali

{Rashida}