Join prehistoric man in one of the oldest forms of wall decorating: stenciling! Did you know that it was as early as 9000 BC when prehistoric man began placing his hand against cave walls and then blowing pulverized pigment around it? It was during the 1700s that wall stenciling came to the United States, where it has now grown into a beautiful and booming decorating method for homes. Today, wall stenciling has become more advanced, and there are numerous stencils and stenciling techniques to enhance the walls of your home!
Stenciling allows you to add your own personalized touch to your walls and it puts you in control of the size, shape and theme of your project. The best part for you is that you will not have to redo the entire surface of the wall. This is a fantastic, cost-effective way to achieve a new look and feel to your home without having to repaint entire rooms or spend a ton of money. Keeping money in your pocket while beautifying your home is the best possible combination, so have some fun and go for it! To achieve the most professional look from wall stenciling, consider hiring a skilled painting professional who will create the look you are hoping for.
What is Stenciling?
Stenciling is applying color to your walls through cutout areas in a template. When the template is removed, a crisp, sharp pattern remains. The options are truly endless with stenciling, as you can choose to stencil an entire room, a small corner, above a fireplace or around a door; you can stencil a border or even a blessing over your baby's crib. Wall stencils come in variously sized sheets and are usually made of mylar or acetate.
Stenciling Design Tips
- Make sure to use colors that blend well with the existing wall color. This will create more warmth and subtleness and avoid making your wall look overdone with too many colors or the wrong colors.
- Don't follow the subtle rule for your child's room! For a child's room, consider using bold, contrasting, fun colors. Popular themes include animals, trains, cars, airplanes, butterflies, flowers, stars, clouds and more.
- Words. A popular trend today is the use of word stencils. You can be creative and even do some fun wording in your kitchen!
An example of word stenciling on a wall
Before you Begin
- Make sure your walls are smooth. If the walls are not smooth then the stencil will not produce clean and crisp designs.
- Repair cracks. Once you repair the cracks in your walls, cover with oil or latex-based paint ONLY. Also, make sure that you are using flat paint, because stencil paints will adhere the best to flat paint.
- Make sure you have all supplies ready at hand.
- Consider practicing with your stencil on a practice board before starting on your walls.
- If you run into difficulty with the stencil paint sticking to your base coat, lightly sand the area of stenciling.
