The one about the wall stenciling

Painting two walls in my living room took forever and that is primarily because I spent an inordinate amount of time wringing my hands about it. I knew what I wanted it to look like but was practically paralized by the fear that I was going to goof it up. There is nothing I fear more than "do-overs". Because, you know, they just never work out.
I bought the stencil ages ago from Stencilease and I've had the paint for months. And I have a pretty good working knowledge of how to dry brush, rag and sponge paint to achieve an aged effect. But I persisted in dragging my feet.
I finally jumped in back in June and did the faux aging paint thing on the walls. I used four different colors, all from Behr. The entire wall was painted Parchment Paper and then I dry brushed and alternately sponged Raffia Cream on down the wall a little more than half way. As I went down the wall I gradually lightened the amount of color so it faded into the Parchment Paper. After that I went back up to the top and worked down again with a dry rag dipped into Gobi Desert and rubbed it across the texture on the walls, but used less and less as I went down the wall. Then I went back up to the very top and into the corner with Bittersweet, mixed with a little glaze. That was to help achieve more of an aged effect.
Then the stenciling began. Just to complicate things I decided that I didn't like the stencil running the way it was supposed to...I wanted the little fleur de lis things pointing up at the top. So that entailed much measuring and lining up, etc., etc., all the while being on a ladder. Not so much fun. I did the stenciling in Parchment Paper, the color I painted the entire wall in.
I'm happy with the end result. I only did this painting on two walls. My living room is very small and I want to try to keep it as light as possible. That is part of the reason I gradually faded the color as I went down the wall.
The best part of this is that it came near the end of this home remodel thing we have been doing since January. We didn't completely gut the house like they show on Flip this House but close. Our 25 year old house seems new again.