My Wall is Finally Painted!

I have this ugly, boring, cinder block wall as part of my backyard border. It’s the back of my neighbor’s garage. For years I have been staring at it, telling myself I should paint a mural on it. I finally contacted the owner of the garage and obtained permission to paint it, plus I had Chris & Paul’s blessings, since they will have to look it at everyday too!

After one of my many visits to the Sol LeWitt, exhibit at MASS MoCA , I had decided that I would put some type of pattern on the wall vs. a mural. Then, much to my delight, Melanie Royals released a new geometric stencil pattern that just fit the bill! I loved the way she showed it on her site, using this layout.

I knew I wanted a bolder color scheme, so this layout and Sol LeWitt’s vibrant use of color, were my inspiration pieces.

I hauled my scaffolding out of the garage and set it up over my giant Hosta plant and a small rose bush. That rose bush was really no fun to have to keep climbing over. To begin, I measured and painted out a white square, then added an orange border and vertical stripe.

My paint store recommended using this California enamel for the job, so I’ll let you know how it holds up in the coming months. So far, it’s held up to rain. 🙂

The two stencils used here, from Royal Design Studios, are All The Angles Moroccan Stencil (Large), done in blue, and Scrollallover is used on the orange, done in white.

Here’s a close up of the two patterns. This paint covered very well, with 2 thin coats for each color.

Hopefully, this wall will brighten my day during a dreary February, when there is no color, other than white to be found in our backyard!