Greek Key in Gold

 When we bought Wendhurst Castle, the front door needed to be replaced. Like really, really needed to be replaced. It didn’t lock or close, and the window was broken. Very safe. :-)

 When we replaced the door over Father’s Day weekend a few years ago we put up new trim on the inside and out, painting the outdoor trim and finishing the indoor trim to match the existing woodwork. I’m still inordinately proud of the stain matching that I accomplished in there.

Then, the next summer, we hung up a new light in the entryway, painted the ceiling with a fresh coat of white, and put a light gray blue on the sliver of wall above all the doorways. (The same blue that is on the back of the door and in the staircase.) My intention was always to do something decorative above the doorways, but it took me a while to figure out what to do.

Finally, this summer it hit me. I settled on a simple Greek key design in a metallic gold paint. I’m going to guess that I completed this project in May or June, because it wasn’t very hot, and I wasn’t very pregnant yet. Which was a good thing because I spent about eight hours up on a stepladder, staring at the ceiling.

I bought a stencil blank at the craft store. It’s basically just a piece of clear plastic. I printed out the design I wanted and traced it onto the plastic, and then cut it out with an x-acto knife. I used repositionable spray adhesive on the back of the stencil, which really helped make things go much more smoothly. I had measured an even amount down from the ceiling all around, so I just made sure to line up my stencil top with those marks every time.

Then it was just a matter of stenciling little by little, moving the stencil over a few feet and repeating the process. I ended up doing two coats because I liked the coverage better.

A few things I learned:

• I would buy a longer stencil next time. I think mine was about 18in long, which meant I had to reposition it constantly. This meant I needed more spray adhesive, which ultimately made the stencil really gummy and difficult to work with.


• Stencil paint dries incredibly fast. I liked the coverage of two coats but made it more difficult on myself by going all around the walls twice, moving the stencil each time. It would have been much easier to simply wait a couple of minutes and add another coat before moving the stencil.

In the end, I really like the finished product. It adds a little bit of interest and shimmer above the doorways, and it only took a day to complete.
What do you think?

P.S. I waited to take pictures of this project until after I had the baby because I knew one of the shots required me laying on the floor, and it would be too much effort to get down on the floor and then get back up again. How terrible is that? ;-)