A Patriotic Bedroom

In 1999, Cristen Forrester stenciled a patriotic bedroom for her son. She wanted the room to look like an old, worn, American Flag. Cristen used Heart of the Home stencil 1270 American Flag Star (not in our full-color catalog) for the wall of stars. The wall of stars is dark blue with white stenciled stars and the other walls are red and white stripes.

The room was base painted with Benjamin Moore Aquavelvet Latex Eggshell in China White. Cristen mixed her own glazes to do the paint finish. She used Benjamin Moore Dark Royal Blue (old #826) and had a custom color mixed to match Ralph Lauren's Farmhouse Red (CO12A). The red and blue paints were mixed with latex (water based) glaze in a ratio of four parts glaze to one part paint. She added approximately 1/2 cup of Floetrol to the glaze mixture. Cristen's biggest challenge was the blue wall. She was applying the blue paint/glaze mixture and then dragging off horizontally so that she could get the look of old worn fabric. The open time of the glaze presented problems since she was doing the wall alone. She worked in long horizontal stripes but recommends that this would be a much easier project for two people. The stars were stenciled with white acrylic paint for good coverage.

The walls of red and white stripes were much easier. She divided the wall height by 7, and taped off sections approximately. 13 ¾" in height for the stripes. She painted then dragged the top and bottom stripes red and followed by alternating red and white for a total of four red stripes. Dragging is a process of applying a paint/glaze mixture then removing a portion of the glaze with some type of brush or broom. It creates the look of a linen or chambray.

The project was completed by aging or antiquing the walls. Cristen purchased universal tint/colorant in raw umber and mixed 1/2 of a dixie cup into a mixture of clear glaze and Floetrol. She then did a colorwash over all four walls. She washed the glaze mixture in a circular motion on all four walls with a sponge. We recommend that you do opposite walls to allow the glaze to time to dry.