Stenciled Furniture

When I took this small bookcase from home years ago to use in my dorm room, it was already old, and had been painted a dark brown color for as long as I could remember. Since then, it's followed me to an assortment of dorm rooms, apartments, and houses. Eventually, I had it stripped, and it sat that way for a few years until I was inspired by this piece from
Nature's Vignettes.

Now it acts as a nightstand for our Castle Bedroom.

Many of us have one of these storage armoires somewhere in our homes. Come on, fess up! It's just one of those plain white fiberboard units from a box store that you assemble yourself. My tiny home is short on storage so this was a quick fix to help bring all that white to life! I taped out two faux panels on the front only and used one overlay of a two overlay stencil from the Mad Stencilist. All done with a roller, very quick and easy!

This week I thought I would focus on breathing some new life into our old furniture. With Spring in the air, many of us start to look around at our surroundings and long for something bright and new to beckon in the new season. Of course, with the economy the way it currently stands, we are all tightening up our belts and watching all unnecessary expenditures like hawks. For the DIY stencilist, I will be focusing on some simple ideas that may inspire. Look in the attic, basement, garage for those long forgotten pieces you thought you had no use for and give them a second chance, in your home or someone else's!

This great little candlestand was a $10 find, turned into a treasure by Maria of Maria Paray Designs. All stencils, including floor border from Royal Design Studio.

I love All Over Repeat Stencil Patterns and have asked some very talented decorative artists to share some of their favorite projects with us here on Stencil Talk. I'd like to thank everyone in advance for your submissions. Keep them coming!

Today I would like to feature an incredible bath done by Rachel Morris of the Stencil Library. We have seen some of Rachel's cousin Helen Morris's work here, but this is the first time we are featuring Rachel's wonderfully creative work. The following text is in Rachel's own words:

I would like to submit my bathroom as my favourite stencilling project. I have sent 1 full room shot and 4 detail shots all featuring stencilling. This was a real labour of love. Just about every surface in the room, including furniture and some accessories needed to be painted and stencilled so it was a big project. Because I wanted to use lots of different colours and patterns in the room, I wasn't quite sure whether it was all going to work together until it was nearly finished. So I don't mind saying that a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this one. But it all turned out better than I ever imagined so I am totally in love with it. Of course, it has really come into its own this winter - nothing better than lounging in a hot bath on a cold, dark winter's night.

I used a combination of stencils from our Japanese and Art Deco ranges. The walls, floor, furniture and lampshades have been stencilled.

My favourite effect is the stencilling done with gloss acrylic varnish on a matte surface for a subtle, textured look.

Stenciling We Love: Day 19

Tammi Latham, of Matilda Jane Originals, stenciled this tropical dresser and a matching mirror.

Tammi doesn't remember which stencils she used for the animal print drawers. She says "I believe I got them at Michael's and they were blue...like THAT helps!" But don't worry, you can find plenty of animal print stencils in our stencil search engine.