DIY Cloud Wall (2 types of stencils)

DIY painted wall stencils 2 ways. I always wondered what else you could use other than stencil material!

Today I’m excited to share a fun update we made to the twins shared bedroom. I had ‘finished’ their big kids room a while ago, but was never totally happy with it. I’m still not. I have big plans, you guys ;) but I’ve finished one of the projects that I’ve been planning to do and it feels so good. It turned out just how I’d hoped- this DIY cloud wall as a feature. Plus, I stencilled on one of my hand lettered quotes, “Dream big, little ones”. I really really love how it’s all coming together!

Before I share some tips and how I made the two types of DIY wall stencils… How about I tell you what I have visioned for this room and you can help me out with the one thing that’s stumping me!?

I LOVE the beds and nightstands that we’ve made them, but they’re very brown. I love wood and I really love this stain colour, I’m just learning that I’m more of a black and white girl. And the one thing that keeps this space from being awesome for me is that. So I’m planning to eventually strip them down and stain them with ‘Ebony’ from Minwax (like this table) OR to give them a fresh coat of white or grey paint. I think it will just simplify the space so much and allow us to do some really fun things on the walls when they grow and start having special requests. I also have some plug in sconces I plan to mount for reading night lights for them- I’m having the worst time ever trying to paint them though (DIY nightmare!).

I also have a vintage dresser in this space (you can see it in the original post here) that I want to paint with chalk paint in a bold colour. And a rug! Oh yes, a rug would make all the difference. I started making a rag rug and oh. my. word. those things take forever! I’ve shelved it (I started before Windsor was born) because I just couldn’t spend that much time and see that little progress. I’m an impatient DIYer. Also… the closet that I’ve conveniently left out of every photo of this space is a bit of a mess. I really would love to build an organizer but it’s not top priority right now. Lastly… my dilemma. What to do on that wall above Aubrey’s bed? I kind of like it blank, but we’ve had two large map prints above her bed for so long now that when I took them down my brain thinks something is missing. Is something missing or am I just getting used to this new blank space? *sigh* So sound off in the comments with your opinion!

Okay, now to the good part… these DIY wall stencils! I shared the geometric floating vanity we installed on the kids walls last week and I really loved it. I had thought about cutting out vinyl clouds and making the accent wall that way BUT when I painted that vanity… I knew I wanted all the grey accents in there to match that colour which meant stencilling! I used Para Paint Premium satin in F-Stop for the colour and our wall colour is called Dreaming in the Clouds also by Para Paints.

I knew my Cricut would make the perfect DIY wall stencils, but I couldn’t find any stencil material without ordering and again… I’m an impatient DIYer. So I tested out two methods. Stencilling with cardstock (the clouds) and stencilling with vinyl (the lettering).

I didn’t want to waste a ton of vinyl creating stencils for the clouds, so I decided to try using standard printer cardstock. I cut out four stencils and did the entire wall (I only did to the nightstand height) with those. In hindsight, I wish I’d cut out more stencils- maybe 10. With the Cricut and cardstock, it was an inexpensive and speedy stencil, it would have been totally worth it. I used a cloud shape that was free in the Cricut Access subscription (just search ‘cloud’). I didn’t measure or level the cloud stencils, I wanted it to look a bit random so I just eyed it, using painters tape to hold them in place.

As with any stencil, I took care to brush away from the paper (in to the middle of the stencil) to avoid bleed. As you can imagine, paper- even cardstock does bleed a bit. It wasn’t awful at first, but the more a paper stencil is used, the paint warps the paper and allows more bleed. That’s why I’d suggest making more stencils than you think you’ll need if you’re going to use cardstock. This is still more affordable than ordering in stencil material to cut. I’m going to get all real with you and show you how it bled on some of my worse clouds. I will never fix it. I’m happy with it even if it’s not ‘perfect’ since it is in a kids room against a wall no one gets close to.

I really love that the Para Paints ‘Premium’ line I was using I only needed to use one coat for the stencilled area to look opaque. Doing two with these paper stencils would have been a deal breaker.

I made a quick video showing the process.

Okay, now the vinyl!

The vinyl material I used to make the quote DIY wall stencil was a very similar process except, of course, I didn’t need to use tape to hold it in place- the stencil stuck to the wall nicely. I took care to press it down very firmly to the wall and since the lines were so fine, I wasn’t able to brush away from the stencil edges- but it stuck to the wall so well there was next to no bleed! #score Also.. for those of you who are grammar police, I chose not to put the comma in just because I like the way it looks this way better. Shane questions it, but didn’t grab a paint brush to fix it ;)