Designer Profile: Victoria Larsen

Victoria Larsen
Victoria Larsen Home Decor Stencils
Everett, Washington

Stencil designer Victoria Larsen was raised amongst paint tubes, brushes and canvases. "My Mother is a very talented artist.", she says. "As my interest in art began to bud, she encouraged me to read her collection of historical books of the master artists." Victoria has also used stencils since she was very little. "My love of drawing and love of stencils was a natural combination which led me to become a designer for these awesome decorating tools.", she says.

Initially, Victoria created a small line of very realistic stencils. One day, a friend carrying a purse stenciled with one of Victoria's designs happened to be in a Ben Franklin Crafts Store when a buyer for the store asked where she got the stencil. The buyer then called Victoria to set up a showing of her designs and within the year her stencils were in over 100 Ben Franklin Stores nationwide.

Victoria enlisted the aid of family members to help with her first trade show. To attract customers, she offered a free mini stencil, while supplies lasted. "When the front doors opened and the crowd stepped in the room, they all hesitated, spotted my booth and a hoard of people suddenly made a mad dash for us. We all looked at each other with panic on our faces! Within two hours we were sold out of everything which left me no product for the next 2 days of the show so we just did demonstrations."

Since that first show, word of Victoria's designs has continued to spread. Her business and designs have recently been featured in Better Homes and Gardens, Victorian Country Homes, Hawk & Trowel, The Faux Finisher, the IDAL magazine, and featured in Lucianna Samu's book entitled Paint Saves the Day as well as last year's The House That Faux Built.

One of things that makes Victoria's business unique is her line of Raised Plaster Stencils, the largest collection of its kind in the industry. She was also the first to introduce the art of cast plaster decorating to the DIY homeowner and offers over 40 decorative plaster molds for ornate plaster ceilings and walls.

The newest addition to Victoria's collection is a Faux Granite Stencil that her customers are using on Formica and tile counter tops to make them look like real granite. "The process is simple and requires no experience. The look is gorgeous and you have to look more than once to tell it's not real granite.", she says.

When customer Sue Thompson wanted to install a stone wall in her dining room, but found that even stone veneer would be costly, Victoria recommended their Raised Plaster Stacked Stone Stencil. "Using it, Sue created an entire stone wall with simple joint compound that looked so realistic she couldn't believe it. She did such a great job that our plan is to present the project to Better Homes and Gardens later this year.", says Victoria.

Victoria's primary focus is on DIY homeowners like Sue, but she also has many professional clients. Artists continue to surprise Victoria with their creative uses of her products. "I've recently had a number of fine art artists who have begun using my raised plaster stencils on canvas combined with their own unique artistry. The work they are coming up with is just incredible."

In addition to her website, Victoria keeps in touch with her customer base through Facebook, MySpace, and a monthly newsletter featuring stenciling and decorating projects, as well as tips and hints. Each newsletter issue offers a subscriber's only discount on one of her designs.

Victoria's biggest challenge? Keeping up! "I oversee every aspect of the business from design conception and techniques to order fulfillment. Since customer service is one of my main concerns, I insist on taking each phone call and answering each email myself. I also maintain the website, blog and social sites so it keeps me pretty busy. But I'm hardly complaining. I love every single second of it!"