Stenciled Walls

Over the years I've painted a fair amount of baseball shirts in playrooms and bedrooms for children. Living in the Boston area, home of the Red Sox, that is the team shirt I am most often asked to paint.

There are two ways I do these shirts. The first is to lay an actual Red Sox shirt down on a large piece of heavy paper and trace the outline of the shirt. I then use some repositionable spray adhesive to mount the paper to the wall. I cut the shirt outline with an Exacto knife, right on the wall. The background color is rolled on and then I freehand all the details and shading.

Another option for doing these shirts is to use an overhead projector. Again, I use a large piece of heavy paper sprayed with the repositionable spray adhesive. I project the image onto the paper which is mounted on the wall and trace the entire image. I first cut out (directly on the wall) the outline of the shirt and remove. This is then roller stenciled. Once dry, the shirt cut out is replaced and the details on the shirt, such as lettering, buttons, stitches, etc. are individually cut out and stenciled. I highly recommend Linda Buckingham's book, Projection Stenciling to learn more about this easy technique.

In honor of baseball season, I thought I would explore some fun baseball stencil designs. This All Over Repeat baseball design, called "Fielders Dream" is from The Stencilled Garden.

A quick look on The Stencilled Garden website yielded quite a few fun baseball themed stencils such as this baseball glove and bat.

Next we will explore creating your own life sized baseball shirt stencil.

This week I thought I would explore the world of tiles, faux tiles as well as stenciling on real tiles. A very economical way to liven a plain backsplash wall is to create your own, customized faux tile.

Denise Kilpatrick, of Stencils by Denise, created this wall of tiles using stencils she designed herself. The illusion of real tiles was created by taping her tile pattern out with 1/4" tape, then shading to give the dimension. Assorted fruits were then stenciled on the tiles, randomly. This type of backsplash will last for years if it is sealed well.

Rima Bechara of Walls and More created this illusion of large tiles in a Powder Room by using an All Over Repeat stencil she custom designed and cut herself for her client.

The following three rooms were submitted by Denise Kilpatrick of Stencils by Denise Distinctive Decorative Painting.

In this Powder Room, Denise created her own stencil design to closely match a wallpaper pattern her client had seen.

Denise stenciled an accent wall in this bedroom using Royal Design Studio's Damask All Over Repeat Pattern. The side walls were ragged off stripes and
the coral corner stripes met at the center of the ceiling like a circus tent top.

The red metallic scrolls in this foyer were stenciled over a ragged off background using Stencil Ease's Spiral Scroll stencil design.

Rima Bechara, owner of Walls & More in Westwood, MA has submitted these two very elegant rooms, both of which utilize All Over Repeat Patterns.

This 18th Century Vase Design overall wallpaper stencil pattern is by Designer Stencils. The metallic tone on tone gives this room a very warm glow.

Another elegant room was created using this Damask pattern designed by Melanie Royals for Modern Masters.