Do you want to change the look of a piece of furniture? Do you want to learn new decorating and painting techniques? Well, the stencil technique will allow you to change the appearance of various materials easily, and even for the most novice.
The stencil technique is one by which certain drawings and designs can be reproduced, so we can reproduce an image or pattern on the object that you want and completely change its appearance.
If you want to learn how to stencil and get to work with that piece of furniture or object that is already old or that bores you and change its appearance completely, then keep reading this article.
What is the stencil technique
- The stencil technique helps us to recover, renovate or restore any type of object, since this technique can be applied to both wood, decorative objects, furniture, walls or fabrics, which gives us great versatility and utility to renew a large number of objects.
- With the stencil technique we will use a mold or template to paint on it and print certain drawings or motifs on a surface. These decorations have been used since ancient times, even the ancient Egyptians already used this technique to print images and shapes on sarcophagi. And today it is a technique widely used in different fields and worlds, from decoration to painting, and used by various groups of people from designers and manufacturers of objects to housewives who want to change the image of an object through restaurateurs.
- Thanks to technique you can even print your own designs, letters and words on the objects, as well as iconic images or geometric motifs for example.
Materials you can use to stencil
Depending on the effect you want to use, you can use all or some of these materials, but in general these are the materials you will need to put the stencil technique into practice.
- Choose the paint that is best suited to paint the surface you want.
- Low-thickness openwork patterns (known as stencils) but you can also make your templates yourself
- Choose the right size brushes for the size of your pattern and design
- Sponges if you want to use various painting techniques
- Adhesive tape that are low contact such as masking tape or paper tape
- Paint tray choose a tray or surface where you can place all the paints and materials without staining anything else and that everything is well attached there.
- Cardboard, tarps or even old sheets or newspapers. Remember that whenever you go to paint you must protect the floor and other nearby surfaces to avoid unwanted stains.
- Solvent or thinner more suitable to clean our brushes once we have finished painting.
Where to get a stencil or mold
We can find the stencils or molds in bookstores and specialized paint or craft stores.
But if what you want is the printing of a drawing or design created by you, or of an image that you have found on the internet, for example, then you could easily make your stencil yourself.
To make your own stencil, draw on paper or print a design and put it on top of the acetate plant or you can even do it with cardboard. Help yourself with a cutter or scalpel to cut out your design. (Remember that the part of the cardstock that you discard will be the final design that will be printed on your object.)
If you want to paint a motif on a wall, you can create the motif on the wall with the help of masking tape. For example, if you want to paint your wall with rhombuses, help yourself with strips of tape, sticking them to the wall and creating rhombus images all over the wall.
Choosing the right paint to make a stencil
- As we have previously mentioned, the choice of paint will be made depending on the material or the surface to be painted. For example, if what we want is to print a design on fabric, such as curtains or upholstery, we will use special paint for fabrics, either with or without relief.
- If you want to paint wood then choose acrylic paint or enamels (in some cases you could also use oils).
- In the event that we want to stencil glass, porcelain or ceramic objects, we must use acrylic paints, but mixed with stained glass lacquer or vitrifiable varnish.
How to do the stencil technique
- First of all we are going to prepare the surface that we want to treat. For this we are going to sand it slightly, avoiding leaving marks on very delicate objects, then we will clean the dust and dirt.
- Then place the stencil or mold on top of the surface. If you want it to be right in the center, of course you must first measure the distance and mark the center so that you can put the stencil at that point. Once we are sure that the stencil is placed in the right place for our design, we will fix it to the surface with the help of masking tape to leave it well attached to the object.
- If you want to make your design on the wall with tape as we mentioned before, then this is the moment to do the entire design on the entire wall, you should never do it in parts. The base mold should always be placed in one go and then the paint applied in one go.
- Once the mold is well attached, we can apply the paint on top. We will use a brush, a brush, or a sponge for it. Apply the paint in dabs to prevent certain internal and fine parts of the mold from lifting and marring. We should always start by applying the paint from the outside of the mold to the inside, so we will prevent the paint from leaking under the stencil and damaging the shape of our image.
- This stencil technique consists of obtaining the image with a single application, so we must cover the entire area very well when we are painting.
- Once you have painted all the desired image it is time to carefully remove the mold (be careful not to touch the paint that will still be wet). Let the paint dry for the time recommended by the manufacturer before protecting the painting by applying a little lacquer, varnish, or wax on top, depending on the surface on which you have worked and made your print.
- Of course remember that whenever you finish painting or applying the varnish you must clean the utensils such as brushes. To do this, clean them with the most suitable solvent for the paint you have used, use damp cloths to clean the bristles and then let them dry on a surface where you can leave the little hairs in the air without leaving them on a hard surface so that they do not deform, but neither leave them in a boat with the little hairs facing up while they are very wet since the glue that joins the mango will peel off.
- Surely now that we have explained everything you need to know about how to stencil, you will be able to change the appearance of some objects or even some walls that you have at home. You see that it is very simple to do and it is not too expensive.