The Contortionist

This back splash I recently stenciled, using the Hourglass Allover design from Cutting Edge Stencils, proved to be quite the challenge! The stencil itself, is a breeze, but the logistics of getting this large stencil into this very small space, was another thing! It would have been a bit easier had I decided to cut the stencil, but you KNOW how I feel about cutting my stencils! It’s truly a last resort for me, and this is a young stencil in my fleet of stencils, with many more jobs in its future, so no way was I cutting it!

I started out with the easiest part of the back splash, behind the stove, where there was the most wall space. I used a metallic bronze/gold paint, which does not always show up as metallic in these photos.

Ok, now we are getting to the tricky part! This is a very small, galley kitchen and this corner was very hard to reach.

The only way I could really reach it was to sit on the edge of the counter and put my feet in the sink.

Then, I had to bend my head and contort my neck and try and stick my hand with stencil brush out at some odd angle to reach the wall and be able to stencil. It was only about two feet of painful stenciling, but it took me forever to do it.

Once I was out of that corner, I was home free! You can see all the blue tape I used on this stencil, vs. spray adhesive. The spray adhesive probably would have been the way to go here, but my nozzle was defective on the can I had with me, and I just did not want to have to go out and get another can, now that I was already here.

The tape ended up working just fine.

I had only previously used this stencil in a hallway, but I really like it as a back splash! I do always feel this stencil needs some embellishment, so I add a dot and put a gem in the center where the pattern connects and there is just a blank space. See close up below.