** The phase 2 after is not a completed after. It is still a work in progress as you will notice the white spots where I painted over the-what I like to call– CU’s.

Good morning! I woke up seeing spots this morning, and no, I’m not sick anymore, lol, not physically nor mentally. Hey, wait! I’ve never been mentally sick. Well, many may think I am sick after you see my threshold, as I like to call it. Once again, I love the poem Christabel by Samuel Coleridge and I call my entrance a Threshold. With that stated, I wanted to make a striking impression and, I can’t believe he agreed, Mr. Renaissance gave me the green light to do as I wish. Can you believe it? When I saw this dalmatian spot design, I fell in love with it and felt it was better than the stripes I originally wanted for the entrance.

Now, there are many ways to achieve these dalmatian spots:

1)  Purchase the very beautiful wallpaper by Thibaut with the style name: Tanzania. Beautiful, but not willing to spend that much.

2) Purchase the stencil for $45.

3) Zoom in and print out the design, cut it out and stencil it or use Martha Stewart’s line to help create a printer stencil.

4) Or, do what I did freestyle.Sure, it may take a bit to find your way, but cheaper and yours. Now this wouldn’t be the type of blog I wanted to create if I said it was easy and only gave you the quick after math without telling you the truth. Yes, I stumble and make many mistakes. Always. I am not an interior decorator nor an artist. This is simply my home and I know what I want in it and you are following me on my journey as I find the way to achieve the desired look.

Step 1: Clean your area of any dirt, dust and debris.

Step 2: Decide on the paint you will be using. I had this on hand, so I decided upon Martha Stewart’s Multi-Surface Satin paint.

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Step 3: Chose your weapon! I decided a small paint brush and a piece of cardboard paper.

Step 4: Start in a low corner in case you mess up by pressing your paint brush against the wall. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You can play with the shapes on a paper to see if you like it, then move on to the wall. Make it yours

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Step 5: Be careful on the ladder.

NOTE: Make sure the black spots are not light. You want them dark and you do not want the white to come through. They need to be noticeable. Now I did not like my original design:

The C’s or U’s, whatever they evolved into, took over and look space-ish-y. Although Noah’s 1st b-day is coming up and the theme will be the Solar System, I considered leaving it for that day then changing it, but my dreams were haunted last night. I couldn’t take it. The CU’s were invading me. Not to mention, they seemed to have gotten bigger as the day of painting progressed. They were taking over. . .like way over. I had to put a stop to it. So, I covered them and this is what is there now. I still need to fill in the spots where I covered the CU’s and I took the picture freshly painted, so you will notice them easily. I assure you, they will not remain noticeable. I still need to put in the French crystal flush mount chandelier and the roman shades, I will be making from the blinds we have taking over our garage, clean or reupholster the bench, and place a quote from Coleridge’s Christabel poem above the mirror. Below you will find where we are, but backwards, sadly, I took this with the Mac Photobooth that seems to reverse things.