Niall Roche

Using Raised Stencils In Your Home



Posted: Sunday, February 25, 2007

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http://www.homeofficebuddy.com

Adding decorative stencils to a room isn't nearly as difficult as you might have imagined. They provide a quick and easy way to add painted artwork to your walls and are well worth considering. Even after buying all of the necessary materials to create the stencil it still works out as a fairly inexpensive project for you to pursue.

The first step is choosing a stencil that you like. You have several options here. The easiest way is to go online and shop in one of the better home decor stores for stencils there. Failing that you can shop in a local store for the same thing. The other option is just to buy mylar stencil sheets and cut your own.  If you do this, you will also need an exacto knife - but it's not difficult to make a stencil that you enjoy.  Just cut out the design you want and then you'll be ready to go.

The next thing you'll need to do is to make sure that your room is ready to be stenciled.  This means that you should make sure that the walls themselves are clean.  The reason for this is that if the walls are even a little bit dirty, this will keep the stencil paste or paint from sticking to the walls.  This will mean that the paste will end up flaking off long before you are ready to change the stencils or paint.

If you don't think that you can get the walls clean enough, then you should put down another coat of paint.  This will give you a clean painted surface to work off of, and will make the room look better to begin with.  You can also chose a paint color that will look great with the color of stencil that you are going to be working with.

When you have your stencil and you are ready to put it up on the wall you'll need some painter tape.  This is just so that you can stick the stencil to your wall while you're painting it - otherwise things can get messy quickly.  This is very important, since you will end up smudging the stencil if it slides around at all while you're painting.

You can make your own stencil paste just by using sheet rock mud, some artist's gesso paint (usually in white) and a little bit of white glue.  After you mix this together, you should have a thick paste that will not drip down the wall after it's in place. As soon as you have put up the stencil, you should start applying the paste.  This can be done in several different ways, although the easiest way will just be to apply the paste with a putty knife.

You'll need to make sure that you cover the entire area of the stencil with enough paste to give a raised surface.  You should let the stencil sit for a while but make sure that you remove it before the paste dries, or you'll have a stencil that's permanently glued to your wall. After you remove the stencil you can then sand down the raised stencils so they're not too lumpy and then apply the required paint.

Is your home feeling a bit drab? Need some useful interior painting ideas? Why not visit http://www.Paintsplashes.com for more information!

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