Stenciling How-To: Tips, Tricks, & Pics

In this post: Stenciling is the perfect way to create the high-end look of wallpaper on a budget! I’m sharing my stenciling how-to, including my best tips, tricks, & pics to help you get it done!

Hi guys! I’m back from my last trip of the summer and before jumping into a whole load of projects that I’ve got planned for the next few months (fireplace remodel, fall decorating, some fun changes in our kitchen, and lots of other good stuff), I’m trying to wrap up some blogging loose ends. One of those loose ends is a long overdue how-to post for wall stenciling. Can you believe that it’s closing in on a year since I stenciled the walls in our powder room?

I had never stenciled before I did this project and figured out a lot of things midway through that I wish I had known from the get-go. So of course I’d love to share all that info with you guys in case you’re thinking about giving stenciling a try (affiliate links included in post).

The first step? In my case, that was convincing my husband that a stenciled bathroom wasn’t going to make the space look like it belonged in a senior citizen home. Because let’s face it, the word “stenciling” brings up visions of dated floral borders stenciled around your grandma’s kitchen. But if you take a look at the stencils available nowadays, you’ll be blown away – there are so many amazing options. For our power room, I went with {this Annapakshi Indian Damask Stencil} (11.25″w x 15.5″h size) c/o Royal Design Studio.

Once your stenciling project has the green light, you’ll want to gather your supplies. If you’re stenciling a large area, I’d highly recommend using a stencil roller along with {this 11″ stencil roller handle} and {this 4″ paint roller tray}, all of which were great. You’ll also need something for stenciling the corners and edges where the roller can’t reach. What I actually had the most success with was a regular 1″ angled Purdy paint brush. You can also use stenciling brushes – I tried some from a local craft store that didn’t work well for me at all but next time I stencil I’d like to try one of Royal Design Studio’s stenciling brushes and see how that matches up next to my angled paint brush.

Once you have your paint and supplies, you need to practice! I used a piece of foam board to fine tune my stenciling technique and also to try out some different paint combinations to decide on the best one for my bathroom. And let me tell you, my first stenciling attempts weren’t pretty (see that bottom corner? yikes!).

Luckily, it doesn’t take long to get good at it. My biggest tip is to use very little paint! I followed the instructions from Royal Design Studio to offload as much paint as possible in the roller tray and to then roll it a few times over a folded stack of paper towels.

Then use light pressure to roller over your entire stencil – you’ll need to go back and forth over it quite a few times to get a good, even distribution of paint.

Once you have your technique down, you’re ready to try it out on your walls. My tip here is to give some thought to where you want to start (you may want to center your pattern on the wall) rather than just jumping into it without thinking. Also, start on the wall where mistakes will be the least noticeable because even though you’ve practiced, your technique will improve as you get further into the project.

Once you’ve decided where to place your stencil, use painter’s tape to tape all four corners down and hold a level up to the side of the stencil to ensure that it’s straight. I didn’t use the level every time I placed the stencil but I did use it from time to time throughout the project to make sure I was staying on track.

As far as placement of the stencil, the stencil that I used had a built-in guide – there were cut-outs in the corners that lined up with areas that I had previously stenciled, ensuring that I was distributing my stencil evenly. So helpful!

Now you’ll roller over the stencil just like you did when you practiced – remember, use only a little paint, light pressure, and multiple rolls back and forth.

What about the corners? They’re tricky suckers! The key is to stencil just one side of the corner at a time. Jam the stencil as tightly into the corner and against the wall as you can (don’t worry about keeping the whole stencil flat – just worry about the area you’re stenciling) and use a brush with very little paint in a straight up and down dabbing motion. Once I stenciled one side of the corner, I would usually move on to stenciling another area of the wall to give that corner a few minutes to dry and then come back to do the other side of the corner using the same technique. It really helps to have two people doing corners (one person holding the stenciling into the corner with both hands and the other person stenciling) but it’s doable with one person too (I did all but one corner by myself).

I did something a little different where my stencil hit the ceiling and the tile on my wall. I actually waited to do these areas until I was done doing all of my other stenciling and then I cut my stencil (I used a yardstick to draw a straight line on it and then just cut it with scissors). I put a line of painters tape at the ceiling, taped the stencil down as usual and used a combination of my stenciling roller and brush. Sooo much easier than trying to work with a full stencil! Just be aware that even if you stencil evenly, often the walls aren’t even so some of the areas near the ceiling that you have left to stencil might be bigger than others – start with the biggest areas first and work your way down to the smallest. This way, you can continue cutting your stencil smaller and smaller to fit the space.

One other tip as you’re stenciling your room – I realized that the most common reason for my stenciling to be uneven was build-up of paint on my stencil. To combat this, every time I rollered or brushed over my stencil, I laid the stencil on an old cutting board and used a damp paper towel to wipe off as much paint as I could before continuing with my stenciling. Even doing this, eventually enough paint would build up that I’d have to clean my stencil fully to get nice clean lines and an even distribution of paint. Initially I tried just cleaning it with soap and water but the paint is HARD to get off and it took forever! I finally tried using a spray latex paint remover (sold at home improvement stores) and it worked beautifully! I simply put the stencil on my old cutting board, sprayed it, let it sit for a few minutes, and then washed the paint off.

My last tip is not to worry about making it perfect! Every single person who has seen our bathroom (and doesn’t read my blog :)) thinks that it’s wallpaper because when the whole space is done, you don’t notice all of those little imperfections:

But trust me, they’re there! My corners are far from perfect:

and there are several spots where my paint bled through the stencil (by the way, if you catch these as they’re happening, you can use a damp toothpick to swipe them away!).

As I was stenciling, I was thinking I would go back and touch up all of these spots at the end but truly you just don’t notice them so I’ve let them be!

I hope you all find this helpful! If you want to see more pics of my powder room (including the heinous “before” pics) and a complete source list for everything in the bathroom, you can check out my bathroom makeover post {here}.

See you all later in the week (stay tuned on Instagram if you want a sneak peek of my fireplace makeover that’s happening over the next several days)!