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Tuesday, April 5th, 2005
At 11 last night I was suddenly inspired to begin stenciling the cabinets. Once upon a time – before I started working an 8 to 5 job – I was a night owl. I guess this was a brief resurgence of my former self.
The stencil of the letter W turned out to be hideously ugly, so I decided to try the fleur-de-lis design similar to one on some of our fireplace mantels (another bonus – fleur-de-lis is French; so is toile, like the wallpaper. Hmmmm).
Now I’m glad I did. The font of the letters in the magazine was so pretty it made the letters not just an exercise in vanity but a decoration. With a cheesy font, there was no point in doing the monogram.
Even using spray adhesive to stick the stencil down, I got some bleed in places. It makes me wonder how the stencils I plan to use on the walls/ceiling in the dining room will work. Of course, I was using semi-gloss oil-based house paint on top of semi-gloss oil-based house paint. Most stenciling articles I read suggest acrylic paint. I think it will work better, too, on a more non-slick surface like eggshell- or flat-painted walls.
I went over the stencils with a paintbrush last night, but I’ve still got some touching up to do. When you’re not eye level with them, they look pretty good, and I think the stenciling adds a bit of “finishedness” to the cabinets (though finishing the trim would help that, too … we ran out of trim – again).
That looks adorable – and really adds to the overall look. Great job!
I’ve got dreams of stenciling the walls and ceilings one day, too. Lisa did them and hers looked great – took forever, but looked good. You should ask her if she had trouble with bleeding.
If you use solid stencil paint (comes in amost every color) and a sponge applicator, you won’t get bleed. Just dab the paint on lightly until you get the color you want. Also, don’t take the pattern off until it is almost dry.
I’m not a stenciling fan, but yours look lovely and very appropriate.
Thanks for the compliments and tips.
I did take the stencil off immediately after I finished painting because I was afraid the stencil would get permanently stuck to the cabinet or something. The first time I tried it (with my cheesy homemade transparency stencil), the adhesive left goo on the cabinet. But this time I let it dry a couple minutes before I stuck it on.
Wow, love those colors! It looks great!
Susie
notahabit.blogspot.com
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