How To Stencil On Furniture

December 8, 2020 by Denise - 60 Comments

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A STEP BY STEP TUTORIAL – HOW TO STENCIL ON FURNITURE TO CREATE GORGEOUS DESIGNS! | VIDEO TUTORIAL

Hi sweet SI family, I hope you’re doing well and staying safe. Today I’m sharing an easy step by step on How To Stencil On Furniture. When I first started painting furniture, it took me a few years to work up the courage to use stencils because I was afraid I was going to ruin my freshly painted pieces. But I’m SO glad I started using them in my makeovers. Stenciling is super easy and creates SUCH GORGEOUS designs!

We’re also keeping a FUN furniture tradition three years strong! This trash bound washstand is getting its third (3rd!) December makeover for the holiday season! Woot woot! I’m so excited to share this stenciled version… very different but equally as beautiful!

As an added bonus for you (and me!) it’s also Trash To Treasure Day!! I’ll be sharing links to my talented T2T Crews’ before and after tutorials at the bottom of today’s post.

So, here’s the original curb-shopped before…

Here’s what it looks like now! This is the 3rd ‘new-holiday-makeover’ this washstand has had! I’m sharing the other two at the bottom of this post. I’d love for you to chime in and let me know which version is YOUR FAV. 🙂

I’m loving this custom color and beautiful design from Dixie Belle’s brand new stencils!

This stencil pattern painted in white reminds me of snowflakes. Isn’t it sweet?

THIS POST IS SPONSORED/CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS TO PRODUCTS I USE. YOU CAN SEE MY FULL DISCLOSURE HERE.

SOURCE LIST

- Curbshopped Washstand – SALVAGED
- Mini Angle Paint Brush
- Sandpaper | Shop Towels
- Stencil Brush
- Temp Adhesive Spray
- Painters Tape
- Water Misting Spray Bottle
- The Gulf (80%)
- Peacock (20%)
- Cotton White
- Dixie Belle Morroco Stencil

STENCIL ON FURNITURE

Although it took me a few years to get ‘into’ stenciling, I’ve done my fair share since then. So if you’re brand new to stenciling or even an old pro, I hope this gives you a few tips and ideas to help you out. 🙂

**Before I started stenciling, I clean this washstand and removed the applique from last year’s design, then gave it a light sanding.

Here’s the full video tutorial. If you have any trouble viewing it in your browser, feel free to click on my Youtube Channel here… and don’t forget to subscribe! 🙂

1. Plan Your Design

Before I do anything, I plan my design. Planning a design includes where you’d like your stencil design to appear on your furniture and what colors you will be using for your base and your stenciled design.

2. Paint the Basecoat

Once you have a plan for the placement and color scheme you can start painting your basecoat.

For this washstand, my basecoat was 80% The Gulf and 20% Peacock .

Mixing these two colors gave me a color similar to a Tiffany Blue!

Tip~ When mixing a custom color, always make sure to mix enough so you don’t run out halfway through. It’s always better to have a little more than not enough.

3. Secure Stencil

Once I painted two coats of my custom blue and it dried 100%, I was ready to stencil. For a clean design, it’s best to secure the stencil with a temporary spray adhesive (I like this one!) or some painter’s tape.

4. Paint the Design

To paint the stencil design, I like to use a stiff round stencil or wax brush and/or a foam roller for larger designs.

The key to painting a clean stencil design~

Load your brush or roller with paint and then OFFLOAD the excess paint.
Dabb your brush in an up and down motion, not side to side.
Press the stencil firmly against your furniture while the other hand dabbs the paint.
Two light coats are better than one heavy coat.
Reposition your stencil perfectly when extending the design.

5. Remove Stencil & Reposition

Once you’ve added one or two coats of paint to your stencil design, depending on the size of your stencil, you may need to lift and reposition it to continue the design on your furniture like I had to with this drawer.

I prefer to reposition my stencil pattern once it’s dry to the touch. This way I know I’m not going to smudge or disrupt the work I’ve just finished. Once I had the stencil so the design matched up perfectly, I finished the end of the drawer.

TIP~ If you’re working with a piece of furniture like this washstand, a little finagling might be needed around edges and insets. For instance, to get around these door panels, I pressed the stencil into the grooves and held on tight to keep the stencil flat while I pounced the paint. I’m not worried if I paint outside the lines because that’s the best way I know how (other than cutting a stencil to size) to get the design closest to the edge. After, I use my base color and clean up and spillover of the design.

6. Protect and Seal

Once your stenciled furniture is finished, you want to protect all your hard work with a topcoat. ANY furniture paint topcoat like poly or wax is perfect.

Because this piece will be heading back into my inventory after the holidays, I’m not going to topcoat it.

If you take a close look you’ll see it’s not totally perfect but a stenciled design rarely is. In many cases, that’s what gives it a little character and interest! Overall, I’m really happy with how clean and crisp it turned out.

And what do you think of these snowflake hanging pulls? I bought them from Hobby Lobby and painted them white.

I’d love to hear which Christmas Makeover you like BEST in the comments below!

Makeover 2020

Makeover 2019

Makeover 2018

And now for some TRASH TO TREASURE FUN!

I know you’re going to LOVE what this talented team of ladies share. They never cease to surprise me with their creativity! Below are their BEFORE photos. Visit the links underneath to see the amazing AFTERS and to learn how they did it! I’m heading over to take a peek right now myself! x

1. Confessions Of A Serial DIYer

2. Artsy Chicks Rule

3. Girl In The Garage

4. Prodigal Pieces

5. Salvaged Inspirations (I’m so happy you’re here!!)

Here’s another look at the before and after…

LET ME KNOW WHAT VERSION OF THIS CHRISTMAS WASHSTAND YOU LIKE BEST. AND WHAT YOU THINK OF THESE NEW DIXIE BELLE STENCIL DESIGN! I ALWAYS LOVE HEARING FROM YOU.

Thanks for reading. 🙂
Wishing you a beautiful day filled with inspiration and Happy Painting friends!

Denise XO

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