Beyond Paint:
Decorating Walls With Stencils
by DIY Home Decorating
Painting walls in various colors is a quick and easy way to decorate
any room in your home. But when you're looking for something a bit
more artistic and unique, you might try your hand at stenciling.
Stencils come in a variety of forms: Simple geometric shapes to
elaborate scenery. Really good stencils can actually reproduce famous
paintings and designs too.
A simple room decoration stencil pattern to start with is a border.
Stenciling borders can be done in addition to existing wallpaper, or
as a replacement. Stenciled borders can be repeatative geometric designs,
or more detailed repeating patterns such as vines, flowers or leaves.
Borders can also be placed at the top of a wall, the bottom, or in
dead center for variating effects and design influences.
Stencils allow you to create friezes as well. This is done simply by
starting with a strong contrasting color at the top, and carried
downward through gradually fading tints until they are lost in the
general color of the wall
There once was a pink and silver room belonging to a young girl, where
the salmon-pink walls were deepened in color at the top into almost a
tint of vermilion which had in it a trace of green. It was, in fact,
an addition of spring green dropped into the vermilion and carelessly
stirred, so that it should be mixed but not incorporated. Over this
shaded and mixed color for the space of three feet was stencilled a
fountain-like pattern in cream-white, the arches of the pattern rilled
in with almost a lace-work of design. The whole upper part had an
effect like carved alabaster and was indescribably light and graceful.
This is an example of very delicate and truly artistic treatment of
stencil-work, and one can easily see how it can be used either in
simple or elaborate fashion with great effect.
Irregularly placed floating forms of Persian or Arabic design are
often admirably stencilled in color upon a painted wall; but in this
case the colors should be varied and not too strong. A group of forms
floating away from a window-frame or cornice can be done in two shades
of the wall color, one of which is positively darker and one lighter
than the ground. If to these two shades some delicately contrasting
color is occasionally added the effect is not only pleasing, but
belongs to a thoroughly good style.
One seldom tires of a good stencilled wall; probably because it is
intrinsic, and not applied in the sense of paper or textiles. It
carries an air of permanency which discourages change or experiment,
but it may take a bit of practice to do well.
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About the Author:
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