I’m happy to announce that we had 107 entries for the Royal Design Studio Stencil giveaway! That is a record number here on DBL! And I’m even more excited to announce the winner!!!
Royal Design Studio will be in contact with you to get your stencil selected, ordered, and shipped! 
Congratulations!!!
~Ashley
Last week I showed you a teaser of our new accent wall in our home office/guest bedroom. Well, today is reveal day, and I literally have been dying to show the whole wall! I’ve had to hold back from just posting it to my social media, but I’ve finally made it to the reveal day! So… without further ado…
Now, if you read our blog regularly, you know that we definitely are not done with the space, but we are well on our way now that the painting is complete! Next projects will include finishing our DIY light fixture, building filing cabinets, building a 2-person lot’o workspace desk, building a nightstand/storage solution for guests, and finally, putting the finishing touches on it all! It’s fair to say that we still have tons of work to do in this room, but I’m hoping to have it done before the holidays! And I think it’s fair to think we can do it, but maybe I am being over-optimistic! We’ll see, right?!?
We loved it, and wrote a whole review about it! And, if you have textured walls like us, you should definitely check it out!
First, make sure you follow our blog! You can follow by email or RSS feed- links are on the right! Never miss a single post! 
This giveaway is open from October 18 – October 25, 2012. The winner will be announced right here on October 26, 2012! Make sure to enter and check back!!!
Here’s How to Enter:
Bonus Entries (leave a separate comment for each item you complete below):
The lucky winner gets to select any one stencil $50 or less with free shipping included, within the continental US.
And don’t forget, you can check us out on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, and HomeTalk!
Can’t wait to see what stencils y’all pick!!!!!!!
The Shops at Target are so fun to browse. Well, with the introduction of the products from the recent “Shops” collections, there were immediately a few items I fell in love with! Knowing that I didn’t want to buy something impulsively, or blow any budgets we’ve been sticking to, I decided to wait to purchase those items.
Well, I waited, and waited, and waited. And I watched to make sure that I wasn’t missing out on them. Then, it happened! Clearance time at Target! The items I wanted had suddenly gone on clearance! Once things go on clearance at Target, you can usually just count them as “gone.” Knowing I didn’t want to miss out on the items, and knowing that I’d decided on their perfect locations, I made the leap and purchased them!
Now, I have two fun, playful, and totally-reflective-of-us pieces to add to our home office/guest bedroom that is currently undergoing a makeover!
As some of your may know, the hubs is an avid deer hunter. It’s a part of his family’s traditions and mine. This deer art was the perfect little piece to pay homage to that tradition, tastefully.
This quilt has the rustic qualities that we both love, but with the touch of modern colors and a little does of girliness from the floral pattern, it was the perfect marriage of the genders for the room. Unfortunately, it only came in twin size, so it will act as a throw blanket and adorn the foot of the bed, complimenting our future bedding. 
I’m really loving these two pieces in the space and can’t wait to whip out more of our shopping scores that we’ve been hoarding for our new office!
It’s official. Family members think I’ve gone nuts. I’ve been selling tons more stuff from our house that we no longer want or that no longer fits our style. To be honest, it’s a weird feeling. You walk into our home, and our entire front living room, is completely empty, except for our two peacock chairs. (oh ya, that means that there may have been some furniture swapping… I’ll share that later)
But, even though it’s a weird feeling to have an empty space, it’s also a completely freeing feeling to start from scratch! I’ve been dying to completely design a room from scratch and I’ve never really had an opportunity to. Most of the time, we’ve had to work with items that we’ve already had. Like I said on the about us page, we’re budget people. And that basically means that we live and die by our budgets and there really hasn’t been a lot of extra room to save for fancy new things.
Recently, I simply decided that enough was enough and I needed to just get rid of what we don’t love anymore and save the money from the sales to invest in pieces we love, little by little. So far, so good!
I’ve sold our sofa/loveseat set, an 8’x12’ rug, and our marble coffee and end table set. Oh ya… and those blue, brown, and green “square” pillows have been gone for a while. Remind me to never ever ever buy non-down filled pillows again!
The hubs still isn’t convinced that I can work within the budget I’ve set for myself, but I am determined!!!
Seriously, I think I should win some kind of record for furniture sales!!! I have a few more things that we might get rid of, but I assure you, the sales are simply to usher in the new look for our home! Soooo excited!
Today, you can find me over at my girl Jenn’s blog, A Home in the Making! Her and her hubby are just getting settled back in after a few weeks in Italy!
In case you haven’t checked out her blog, you should I was lucky enough to have this lovely lady as my Roommate at Haven!
My post is part of her series, “What are you loving about fall?” So, if you want to check out an amazing blog, and enjoy a little Fall inspiration, head on over! I’m actually sharing my favorite Fall fashions and foods! What can I say? A little break from DIY is good for the soul!
I hope you’ll head on over and show Jenn a little love, and while you’re there, you should check out her amazing, ongoing kitchen renovation! So gorgeous!
Well, I guess it’s high time I’m back to blogging! After wrapping up our 30 Days to an Organized Home series, I was a bit pooped and had tons of things to catch up on! First, exams are coming up for law school, then I’m working behind the scenes at home on a bunch of projects, and finally and more importantly, I recently started my own business, and business while it had been steady, suddenly blew up!!! Seriously… I am counting my blessings and thank the Lord every day for the opportunities that I’ve been given.
Now, on to the first of many big projects to come! With Julia moving in, I’ve mentioned a time or two that we’d be overhauling my “mellow yellow” home office to become a home office for both Eric and me. I have to say that designing a double-office and guest bedroom with a full sized bed into a 10’x12’ space has been quite the challenge! But, I’ve definitely been enjoying the process.
Yesterday, I officially primed the office, painted the office, and then stenciled that office!!! Whew… thank goodness I had two lovely assistants to help and cheer me on through the process! Thanks Eric and Julia!
First, let’s take a quick look at the color change! From my favorite buttery yellow to a sultry and fresh grey. LOVE it!
After priming and painting the room, it was time to stencil. Royal Design Studio was kind enough to send me a stencil of my choosing for free, and all I had to do was share my opinions about using the product. Don’t worry… opinions are 100% my own and I had been dying to try my hand at stenciling after my laundry room herringbone wall! With a ton of amazing stencils, I settled on the Moroccan Arches Allover Stencil.
I really loved the Moroccan styling (reminds me of when I traveled to Morocco) and that the stencil would allow for a subtle background color (grey) and a huge pop with the foreground color! We chose to go really bold and use orange paint to contrast the grey! (Remember, we’re pretty big SF Giants fans around this house, so for a joint office, this was a perfect accent color choice!)
The setup of the stencil was pretty basic. I used Frog Tape for delicate surfaces to hold the stencil because I knew it wouldn’t damage my freshly painted walls. And, as instructed, I used a foam roller and a level to make sure that my design wouldn’t end up looking all wonky.
Little by little, the stencil went up and the wall came to life!
Let me tell you… stenciling is a delicate art, but it’s not difficult. You just have to have the time and a bit of patience. In the end, we LOVED the results!!! And if you think you can’t get clean lines on textured walls… YOU’RE WRONG! It’s not easy, but it’s possible!
How to get clean lines on textured walls?
And really… that’s all there is to it! You may still get a bleed here and there, but for the most part, you’ll have clean lines, and you won’t really see the couple small bleeds once you step back! 
Since Royal Design Studio is going to spoil one of our readers, we figured we’d entice you a bit more to come back by saving the “final” reveal of our stenciled wall for the giveaway post! So, come back and check out the final look, and enter the killer giveaway!!!
We're two young, newlywed professionals who moonlight as designers/home-improvement-DIYers! We're BUSY, we're FRUGAL, and we LOVE to DO-IT-OURSELVES. Find out more about us under the ABOUT US tab.
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