The supplies I used for my project are as follows:
Wall Stencil (I used the Donatella Damask Stencil for my project.)
Level
Pencil
Paint (I used Behr Marquee Cameo White and Sherwin Williams Rainwashed, color matched in Behr Marquee paint.)
Painter&#;s tape
Mini foam roller
Paint tray
Paper towels
Stencil brush
Small paint brush
Scissors (optional)
G.SB Product Page
Next I had to decide on colors. I already knew that I wanted to do white + the aqua color that I had already painted my office nook, but I had to choose which one would be the base color and which color I would stencil over top.
As I looked at different examples of stenciled walls, I realized that with the stencil pattern I had chosen, if I did the white as my base and the aqua color on top, I would have a more bold wall. And if I did an aqua base with a white stencil over it, my design would be a little more muted. Since I tend to be a bit scared of bold pattern, I decided to go with the latter combination.
The exact colors I used were Behr Marquee Cameo White and Sherwin Williams Rainwashed. (But I had Rainwashed color matched in the Behr Marquee paint since it is my favorite!)
To make sure that my stencil pattern would be completely straight, Donnie helped me draw a perfectly straight vertical line down the middle of the wall with a pencil.
That way I could set my first row of stenciling right against that line. Then all of the rest of my rows would be built upon that one, ensuring that they would all be straight.
To place the stencil the very first time, I lined it up with the pencil line that Donnie had drawn. I also placed it right up against the ceiling.
My stencil set came with a coordinating ceiling stencil. So if I started my design at ceiling level, I would be able to go back in with the smaller stencil later and easily fill in the little gap at the top. (You&#;ll see what I mean in a minute!)
I just used painter&#;s tape to adhere my stencil to the wall. Some of the instructions and tutorials I read recommended using a spray adhesive on the back of the stencil as well. But that sounded messy to me, so I used tape by itself. I didn&#;t have any trouble.
I think one of the biggest keys to getting a nice, clean stencil line is to use very, very little paint. I opted to use a mini foam roller to apply most of the paint.
So I would load my roller and roll off some of the paint in my paint tray. Then I&#;d do a roll or two on a paper towel. This would ensure I had only a very thin layer of paint on my roller.
I would then roll a coat of paint over my stencil. Often, since there was so little paint on my roller, I would have to refill my roller 2-3 times and go over the stencil again to make sure it was completely filled in.
I found that doing several of these thin coats one right over the other worked well. It really minimized bleeding under the stencil.
At the top, bottom, and side edges of the stencil, there are registration marks that help make sure that the stencil is lined up in the correct position. I would typically finish rolling my paint and remove the stencil right away.
Then I&#;d let the paint dry for a minute or two and use the registration marks to position the stencil again.
Since I was using very thin coats of paint, they dried quickly. I didn&#;t have to wait long in between stencils.
I also staggered the placement of the stencil, which allowed me to go more quickly. So, for example, while the paint for the stencil in the below photo was drying, I would remove the stencil and place it beside the top row. I&#;d roll the paint over that one, and then by the time I was finished there, I could move the stencil back down to the bottom. By then, the first stencil I had done was dry and ready to go.
The main part of the wall was a little time consuming, but the process was pretty straightforward&#; tape the stencil, paint, move the stencil, paint again, repeat. Eventually, though, that easier section was done, and it was time to tackle the edges.
As I mentioned previously, my stencil came with a smaller piece that was designed to help fill in the gap along the ceiling line. I actually ended up trimming down the top of the ceiling stencil by about 1/4&#; or so. This allowed me to place it right up against the ceiling rather than it rolling up onto the ceiling, which would make it harder to stencil.
For the smaller pieces like the ceiling and the edges, I used a stencil brush like the one below rather than a roller because it was easier to manipulate in the smaller spaces.
If there was a spot that was really teeny tiny, I kept a small paintbrush handy and used that to fill in when necessary.
My stencil didn&#;t end up hitting the edges of my wall exactly. I had to do a bit of maneuvering to stencil each end and the very bottom of my wall.
I would first tape the edge of the opposite wall where I didn&#;t want the paint to seep. Then I would just let the stencil bend into the corner and press it in with my fingers on one hand and stencil with the other hand.
The one piece of the wall that perplexed me a bit was a little two-inch strip between the door molding and the wall. There was no way to bend the stencil to make it fit neatly in that space. So I ended up cutting a two-inch strip out of my stencil once the rest of the wall was complete and using that to fill in the gap.
(If you were planning on using your stencil somewhere else and didn&#;t want to cut it, one of my Instagram friends suggested making a photocopy of the stencil and cutting that, perhaps out of cardstock, which I thought was a great idea!)
As you can see, I taped up both the door frame and the wall so I wouldn&#;t get paint on them, then taped my little piece of stencil into the gap, and just filled in with paint like I had on the other edges.
I pulled the tape away, and my wall was done! Yippee!
I did go in and end up touching up a few spots with paint where the lines weren&#;t totally crisp. It still is not 100% perfect, but the pattern is pretty forgiving, so I didn&#;t have to be too nit-picky with it.
I would say all in all I spent about 14 total hours stenciling. (And I tend to be kind of slow because I&#;m a perfectionist, so other people would probably be faster than me!)
Why, indeed???
It&#;s time consuming, the clean-up is horrendous and who cares about their walls anyway!
Well, you do and I do, too. In fact, I obsess about the color of my walls to the point where I painted most of my living room 4 times before I settled on the color for it. I used the sample paints you can get at Benjamin Moore and Sherwin-Williams. (For $7 Sherwin-Williams will mix up a quart of any color for you and for $6 Benjamin Moore offers a pint.) In fact, I usually do most or all of the first coat in the sample paint because it&#;s so inexpensive. One note: You can&#;t control the amount of shine, so unless it happens to be what you want, you probably wouldn&#;t want to use the sample paint for the final coat.
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I&#;m living in a new (old) house (we moved) and the walls just look bare. I can&#;t afford to collect art, so I thought of wall stenciling. I googled it and, it&#;s beautiful! Really! Look it up and you will see thousands of fabulous patterns. One of the most beautiful sites is Royal Design Studio. The largest collection is probably at Etsy.com which has millions of different patterns.
I also looked up the YouTube videos about wall stenciling and there are millions of those. They all make it look very easy. Here&#;s one of many:
I ordered a stencil and the supplies I thought I would need- brushes, a clip-on level, and a couple of small rollers. BTW, the cost of stencils seems rediculous. My pattern came on a 19&#; square sheet of mylar and cost $38. Considering that I am planning to stencil my entire house with different patterns, I will probably be investing quite a few dollars on stencils.
Fortunately, I had the foresight to buy a pattern that I knew would be very forgiving of mistakes, with no straight lines. That proved to be a very good idea because my registration was not always perfect, to say the least.
The videos proved right about how to do the stenciling, but, of course, I went ahead and did it &#;my way&#; anyways. I quickly realized that I preferred the stippling with a brush method over the rolling method and that the paint needs to be put on in a very thin coat so it won&#;t bleed.
The first thing they don&#;t say in the videos is that it takes hours and hours and hours and hours. I should have kept track, but I didn&#;t. I do know that it took me over a month altogether.
The most time consuming part is around windows, in corners and next to the moldings. You have to bend the stencil and stipple the pattern and lots of time, you have to later re-create parts of the pattern by hand.
The second thing they don&#;t tell you about is the clean-up of the stencil. In the videos, they show people scrubbing off the paint with soap and water. That&#;s fine if you want to clean the stencil every hour or so, but I didn&#;t. I wanted to clean it at the end of however much time I could spend that day on it.
I ended up buying latex paint remover, spraying it on both sides of the stencil, wrapping it in clear plastic and letting it sit in the tub of our spare bathroom overnight. Even then it was very hard to scrub off the paint with a wire brush, a soap pad, and a scrub sponge.
I did the scrubbing on of our cutting boards (which is now warped) &#; setting that in the kitchen sink and scrubbing the stencil until all the paint was off both sides. I quickly realized that pieces of paint were going down the drain, so I bought a mesh strainer for it.
So, now for the part where it&#;s worth all of this &#; it looks amazing! You can match the colors to your furniture or your curtains or whatever. Or, you can choose colors that don&#;t compete with your furniture (my mission).
Some people have asked me why I didn&#;t just wallpaper it. I love wallpaper, but, in an old house, that can get very expensive. With stenciling, you have total artistic freedom to pick your colors and you can work on it at your leisure, as I did, doing a little bit at a time.
When it&#;s done, you feel totally different about the room- it&#;s yours!
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