Throw Back Thursday – Wall Stencil Tutorial

In honor of TBT, I decided to share a tutorial on my recent damask-stenciled hallway walls.  Stenciling truly scared me and so I hesitated for months not giving it a try.  I wish I would have done it sooner because I LOVE how my walls came out and it was such an easy, affordable project.  First and most importantly – while I considered my first stencil project easy, stencils are extremely tedious, so take that into consideration when you are selecting the wall(s) in your home and the amount of coverage you are wanting to achieve.  This isn’t an application you want to complete in a day.  You are going to want to take your time and ensure the stencil is level and your pattern is perfectly symmetrical. And if you are wondering, Yes, I am a perfectionist. It's really annoying...

Anyway, it’s also really important you carefully choose your color schemes, and have the proper tools on hand.  My hallway was already painted a muted gray tone, and since it oddly complimented the gold and cream throughout the downstairs living area I knew I didn’t want to change it.  I decided an iridescent pearl tone would give a touch of sparkly glam and wouldn’t overpower the rest of my home décor.  Your local craft stores should have plenty of wall stencils to choose from.  I purchased a damask print from the Martha Stewart collection at Michaels.  Since I wanted the pattern to have a little “glisten”, I purchased a metallic acrylic paint also from the Martha Stewart collection at Michaels called Mother of Pearl. 

OK… so Supplies you will need are:

-Stencil
-Paint
-Foam Roller Brush (I buy packs of 4 at the Dollar Tree!)
-Painters Tape
-Pencils
-Mini Leveler

Once you have selected the area you’d like to stencil, start on one side of the wall at the very base.  Use your baseboard to set the stencil and then use the leveler to ensure the entire piece is straight.  Apply tiny strips of the painters paint along each side of the stencil, and then again at the top.  Most of the stencils come with grid lines on the sides, top and bottom piece that will help align the pattern, so use those little helpers as your guide!  I found it helpful to place a tiny dash in pencil on my wall to help for the next stencil alignment. 

After you’ve ensure the stencil is level and applied your paint strips to hold the stencil into place, carefully begin to cover the full stencil with paint using your mini roller brush.  Place your fingers along the top of the stencil to add some additional support and friction against the brush strokes just to ensure your stencil doesn’t begin to slide around.  Don’t push on the stencil forcefully, as you will cause the paint to creep out of the stencil lines and create a huge mess!  Ensure the paint covers every tiny cut-out of the stencil – I missed a few corners on a couple applications and had to go back.  I do not recommend this, so as I stated earlier – take your sweet time…

 

I didn’t allow the paint to dry before removing my stencil.  I carefully peeled it off the wall and immediately reset on top of the lower painted area, again using the pencil markers and the leveler to ensure it stayed perfect.

I was super excited to be on my last little corner and decided to snap a picture… gorgeous, right!?

 

 

There are SO many stencils out there, it’s easy to become addicted.  A few weeks after this project, I actually cut one of the stencil strips in half, and painted one of the damask medallions on top of each door frame in the hallway.  It really balanced out the stenciled wall and gets a lot of compliments ;)

Here is a peek of how the wall currently looks after I applied some wedding photos.  By the way, these photos were taken by http://www.studio337photo.com/ - check out her work, the pictures are stunning!!

I hope you enjoyed!  Stay tuned for some fun posts this weekend ;)

kara.michelle
"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are" ~ E. E. Cummings