Pantry part 1: The start of the stenciling addiction
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Materials needed:
- Stencil (Stencil I used
)
- Stencil brush (Brush
) or roller
- Stencil adhesive (Spray
) or painters tape
- Paints
- Paper plates
- Level
) or roller
) or painters tapeI wanted a bold pattern in my new pantry to start to pull everything together. I love my new pantry, but it just wasn’t feeling very “finished”. This is going to be a multiple post project. But, let’s start with the walls. I didn’t want to do tile or wallpaper, because it was too big of a commitment (and the cost was pretty crazy for a pantry). So, I turned to stenciling. Here is the before shot of my pantry (ignore the missing cabinet door…long story)….
Most importantly, I needed a stencil to get started. I wanted a big stencil with an overlap, so that I didn’t need to worry about a crooked pattern. I chose this one
Then, I ran to the home improvement store for some paint. If you follow the blog at all you can safely assume that I was going for some gray and blue paint. Since you don’t need a lot of paint for this project, you might want to see what kind of extra paint that you have laying around the house to keep things cohesive and save some money. I went with Dutch Boy dura clean flat paint in Padlock Gray and Sailing Suzy. I only got a pint of each and look how much was left (like probably 9/10ths of the can)….. so you really don’t need a lot of paint!
Now that I had all the supplies, I cleaned out everything and took down all the shelves to get ready for some stenciling. I knew that I wanted the bottom row of the stencil to be a complete row because it was at eye level, so I started in the lower right hand corner of the wall. Give some thought about where to start, because each project might require a different approach.
Some people use rollers and other use brushes when stenciling. Based on the fact that I was using multiple colors, I went with the brush approach. But, both work well assuming you don’t use too much paint. But, like with anything, I would practice on some cardboard or something to get the hang of your preferred approach.
I used a few paper plates so that I could ensure that there wasn’t too much paint on the brush. This is perhaps the most important thing about stenciling with a brush….too much paint will lead to smearing. So, USE THE LEAST AMOUNT OF PAINT POSSIBLE. I repeat. USE THE LEAST AMOUNT OF PAINT POSSIBLE. Here is my first square where I was too aggressive with the gray paint.
I taped the stencil on the wall using four pieces of painters tape and made sure that the first stencil was level. Then, it was time to put paint to wall. My approach was to get the paint on the brush, dab on the plate to remove some excess and then go to the wall. Then, I continued dabbing away. When I say dab, it is like a stabbing motion (you can really get some aggression out). If you do this right, because you aren’t using a lot of paint, it will dry very quick and you can immediately move to the next stencil (I was working right to left across the wall, so I did the left part of the stencil that will overlap with the next stencil first so that it had extra time to dry). Assuming you are able to keep each stencil lined up (like shown below), you will stay level and you don’t have any downtime waiting on paint to dry. Another question I get a lot is if I had to clean the stencil each time. The answer is no. Assuming you don’t use a lot of paint, the wall side of the stencil was always dry and clean. Here is a visual of the second stencil application (the first overlap).
Then, you need to just keep working across and then up. I was able to re-use the same four pieces of tape for the whole wall without issue. Some people use spray adhesive to get the stencil to stick to the wall. I didn’t want another step each time I moved the stencil, so I went with using tape. But, that is totally up to you.
I did all the full stencils first. Then, I noticed that I had an unacceptable amount of blank space at the ceiling and on the left wall where I couldn’t quite squeeze in another full stencil. Some will advise to cut the stencil, but I am way too cheap for that (what if I want to reuse the stencil). So, I folded it and used more tape to ensure that it was close to the wall in all the spots. It looked a little something like this…
I finished the entire pantry wall in less than 1 day. I am not going to lie, it was a lot of work, but it turned out great and will be so much easier to remove (compared to wallpaper or tile) if I get sick of it in the future. Plus, the whole project cost under $50 and I have tons of paint left for some more projects. What do you all think of the finished product?
