How to Stencil a Wall: DIY Wall Painting Project

I’m so excited to share this project with you guys today. For a while now I have wanted to do a stencil in my dining room. I wanted to make this a feature wall because its the first room you see when you walk in the house and it should make a statement.

Here is the before, the wall is kind of sad. Those metal art pieces were some of the first things we bought when we built the house but now 6 years later I hate those things! 

The thing about stencils is you have to find the right one. I got this amazing green rug from Rugs USA when they had an 80% off sale I absolutely love the moroccon trellis print. So imagine my delight when I found the exact same trellis print as a stencil! I was browsing stencils on Royal Design Studio and there it was a match made in heaven.

Once you find a stencil, the hardest part is finding a paint color. So after years of searching for the perfect stencil it took me months to settle on the paint color. In the end i decided to use craft acrylic paint in a metallic finish. I am so happy with my choice. I used Martha Stewart, brushed bronze. The metallic finish is amazing, it looks copper and depending on how the light hits the wall it looks different.

Ok so here is the step by step process on how to stencil a wall:

The supplies for this project were minimal. Paint, sponge roller, paper plate, frog tape, pencil and stencil. Remind me again why I didn’t do this sooner??

The first step was the clean the walls. I used my duster to dust the entire wall then I used a magic eraser to clean any scuffs on the wall.

Ekk! Now its actually time to paint! I decided to start in the middle of the wall. and work my way to each side. I figured I wanted the print to be centered in the wall and on the ends wherever it ended it would not look weird. So I taped the roof and the baseboards and taped the stencil to the center of the wall.

I just put a little paint in the paper plate and rolled the roller around until the paint was evenly distributed on the sponge roller. Usually you are supposed to roll the roller on a paper towel, but I found that the amount of paint I was using was so minimal I was able to skip that step.

The amazing thing about Royal Studio Stencils is that they have little triangles that you use to line up the next stencil.

At the baseboards I just used my hands to keep the stencil tight to the wall and painted as usual.

It came out so well! This project took me about 4 or 5 hours. I did it one night after the girls went to bed and then about an hour the next morning.

I think it adds so much to the wall. I think on the right side I will go back and add the dots from the stencil but it doesn’t bother me enough to actually do that this century lol I just love that its a mix of copper, bronze, brown and gold depending on the light in the room. It truly makes me happy in there now.

Next project  a gallery wall of our family pics. I’ll keep you posted on that project.

Have you done any stenciling in your home? I would love to see your projects.