FINDING INSPIRATION THROUGH PICTURES
Through the years Louis Vuitton always seems to amaze me with new patterns and crazy architecture in their stores. They are always rising to the occasion when it comes to leather goods and making a statement. I chose to make this very same statement in my kitchen a few years back. I moved into a luxury high rise and wanted something different yet eye catching. I decided to paint the Louis Vuitton Classic Monogram on one wall in my kitchen. At first I was nervous about it looking tacky but I pulled it off by using just one color and on just one wall. This pattern can be very overpowering to any space and easily can look tacky so you want to keep it to a minimum. The project took my best friend and I about 5 hours to get everything to line up correctly. If someone video’d the whole process I’m sure we could have gotten a reality TV award considering one of us had to hold the stencil extremely still while the other painted. Through sweat and laughter and a few pulled back muscles we finally finished and the project is one of our finest to date. Below is a step by step guide on how to get the same look:
1. A large Paint Brush
2. Small Paint brush for Touch Ups
3. Scissors
4. A sponge
5. Brown Paint ( Or a paint color of your choice)
6. Heavy stock poster board (Try to find something that is not flimsy. when the paint gets on the paper it can become soft and hard to use over and over again. Find something that will be easy to hold up while you sponge over the stencil.)
7. A pencil for drawing out your pattern
8. A Pattern of your choice. I chose the classic but there are many different patterns you could do.
STEP BY STEP PAINTING GUIDE:
Day 1
1. When Drawing out your stencil make sure to hold it up to your wall and figure out the size you want it to be. Above is an example and is very small. The actual stencil I used almost took up the entire poster board.
2. Make sure when you cute out the stencil to have very straight lines because the smallest mistake will make the stencil look awkward on the wall. Once you are finished have a friend, boyfriend, parent help you hold it up to the wall.
3. Carefully put a small amount of paint on the sponge and carefully dab over the stencil.
4. Wait a few seconds for the paint to dry and pull the stencil out towards you.
5. Make sure to do this in one motion or else it will drag on the paint and mess up the stencil.
6. Continue the steps above until you get the amount of pattern you want on your wall. Make sure to mesaure out between your “LV’s” so everything looks balanced.
7. Once you do the entire wall let the paint dry overnight. There will be minor imperfections, but not to worry these can be fixed the next day.
Day 2
8. Take a small paint brush and fix any minor imperfections and make the lines of the LV look more defined. I went over almost all of mine to make sure Each LV looked perfect. This takes a lot of time but it worth it in the end.
9. Use the larger paint brush to fill the inside of the shapes to add a second coat. You may also need to use a white paint to fix any mistakes that need to be covered up.
10. Let dry for another day
Day 3
11. Your wall should be finished! I suggest not hanging anything on the wall and keeping this wall as a statement itself.
Pictured above was my final Louis Vuitton Monogrammed wall. I hope this step by step guide helps you with your LV wall. As you see my wall made a great backdrop for photo ops with my girlfriends as well! Please send me pictures when you finish your final project.
marissa.iacovoni.interiordesign@gmail.com
XOXO
Designer
Marissa Iacovoni
Diva On A Dime Interiors 