The Truth in a Moving Rumour {Bright Leafiness for a Dreary Outdoor Wall}

I can verify the truth of rumour I've heard. Putting your house on the market suddenly means that you make time to do so many of the tweaks that you've been meaning to do for years. 

That's us for sure.  

It's been fun.  

It's been HARD work. 

It's been so satisfying!

A project that's been on the cards was to do a simple botanical stencil on a small/boring/green/outdoor wall in our back yard.

Completing the quick project has significantly upgraded the view from my kitchen sink!

This is how I did it:

1. I thought it would be great to use leaves that actually came from my garden, so I picked 5 that were fairly simple shapes.  I scanned the leaves and printed the shape out, using scrap A4 paper. 
   
2.  I cut the leaf shape out - forming  a paper stencil.  Cardboard or thin plastic would be a good idea if you wanted a firmer stencil.  
3. I took a couple more scrap A4 sheets to act as spacers between the stencil shapes.  
4. Using masking tape, I positioned the stencils on the wall, starting with a row just above eye height, and then working systematically up and down from there.
5. I only needed a tiny bit of white paint.  I used a small foam roller, with a thin layer of paint.  I rolled the roller in the paint on a recycled polystyrene tray to distribute the paint evenly, then carefully rolled the paint in the stencil gap.  I had to be particulary careful with the fern stencil. 
6. I turned some of the stencils over for their next printing in order to get the leaf facing in a different direction.  I used my hairdryer to dry any paint on the stencil, which may have marked the wall.
7. This is what my tools looked like:

 

All that was left to do, was to get Charlie the English Springer Spaniel to pose in front of the wall.  He's a very clever dog, but he didnt understand that I wanted him to sit there and look beautiful.  A few tasty treats helped to keep him in the vicicnty while I quickly snapped the results.

And now stepping outside my back door is definitely prettier!