Sometimes clients ask me to help choose wallpaper for a particular room. Trying to find just the right colors as well as the right pattern can be difficult. Sometimes the answer is not choosing wallpaper at all but customizing color and paint techniques to get the desired effect. Here are two examples of using a stencil and a glaze over it.
This is a dining room with wainscoting and crown molding. We wanted a brocade design that had an antique look to it. We chose a large pattern stencil that would be repeated around the entire room. The background color was a warm light gold. The stencil color was a deeper gold. The faux finisher made sure to use a very light hand in stenciling with some areas hardly visible. This would create the antique look of old faded wallpaper. Then to give the wall more texture, color, and age, a light teal was glazed over the stencil. This hand painted finish achieved the look that was desired. We got the color combination we wanted, the pattern, and the antique look. In contrast the woodwork was painted a stark white that brought out the stencil and faux finish more.
