Holidays & New Entryway Art

Friends! It's been forever since I've updated this little blog of mine, but I'm back and excited to show you some updates I made over the holidays over the next week or so. Speaking of the holidays, how were yours? I had a great Christmas and New Years. It was so nice to be able to relax a little and spend much needed time with family & friends.

Christmas morning with the family 

One of the bigger projects I tackled was updating the 'entryway' in the maisonnette. Last time you saw it, it looked like this, with 2 shelves on the little wall you see when you walk in. I liked the shelves there originally, but I was never really sure how to style them and they ended up being dust collectors.

pretty, but not practical

After considering my options, I knew I wanted to hang two large-ish black frames vertically, with a large black and white graphic print inside. I looked at fabric, but didn't love any of the options that were reasonably priced, and then I stumbled upon this post and knew I could just stencil something I liked. I'm a total sucker for an ikat pattern, and instead of re-inventing the wheel, I decided to make my own stencil, based on this original. 

To do this, I printed off the original image, traced it onto cardboard from a cereal box, and cut it out with a razor knife. To stencil the pattern onto the poster board, I simply taped it down and used a regular bristle brush to dab it into the stencil. I wanted the pattern to look almost like a fabric print, so I wasn't worried when some of the repeats weren't perfect. 

mid-stencil 

Once I finished stenciling both pieces of poster board and they dried for a few hours, I simply cut them to size and popped them into the frames. I love that the black and white pattern makes a statement, but isn't too overpowering for the space. 

Did y'all make any changes over Christmas? What are you looking forward to in 2014? 

xoxo

Marisa