Emorie's big girl room: a stenciled shelf back

We are currently creating a "big girl" room for our 3 1/2 year old daughter. We have been slowly but steadily working on this room for the better part of a year with the idea of slowly transitioning her into the bigger room. When we were expecting late last year, we began working a little more quickly on the room. When we miscarried, we kept creating the room even though our nursery wouldn't be needed.




We already had a headboard that my dad built himself for her. It's gorgeous. We already had an IKEA dresser, and my parents got her a bookcase for toy and book storage.

I loved the look of the book case but it looked a little plain. I went to Lowes looking for wall stencils or a pattered roller but found neither. I then went to Hobby Lobby with my daddy, where we found an entire wall of large wall stencils and smaller project stencils. I bought some craft paint, a project stencil and a stencil brush.

I had this idea that I would cut posterboard to fit in the back of the shelf. I thought if I got tired of the pattern or color I could change out the posterboard to something else. This seemed like a good idea, but after painting and stenciling on the posterboard, I realized that the pink was way. too. bright. It was like I'd painted with Pepto Bismol.

My solution was to do something I really didn't want to do. I took the shelf back off and stenciled and painted the actual shelf backing. The result was to perfect- a pretty pop of color that was just the right pink. 

After accessorizing and decorating the shelf, I loved it that much more. If you're like me and you are worried about the permanence of painting the shelf back, don't be. I took the plunge and loved the result. 

Stay tuned. We're almost finished with the big girl room.