Why Wallpaper when you can Stencil your Dining Room?

If you prefer a design on your dining room walls as opposed to plain painted walls, there is a better option: Stenciling lets you add the beauty of a design to your walls in whatever colors your choose and the process is easier and less expensive than wall papering.

Save Money and Effort

While no one would argue the beauty of elegant wallpaper, you can create a very similar effect at a fraction of the cost and effort by stenciling. Depending on the wallpaper you choose, the cost, even if you do it yourself, can be quite high; but stenciling merely requires some inexpensive paint, stencils and brushes. When you tire of wallpaper, the paper must be stripped from the walls and the walls have to prepped for new paper or paint, which can be a laborious process. If you tire of a stencil, simply paint over it!

Stencils also give you more flexibility in color choices because you can choose from virtually unlimited choices in paint colors; this allows you to customize the design to coordinate with your fine china or any decorative aspect of the room. You can choose to stencil at the top of the room, at chair border height, or add an all-over stenciled design to the walls.

Stenciling Tips

There are a great variety of stencils available at craft stores, and you can find an even greater selection online. However, if you can’t find exactly what you want, you can cut your own stencil design from a sheet of acetate, using a craft knife. Acetate is available at craft stores. Making your own stencil is an excellent way of coordinating a design in a room; for example, you may want to repeat a design from a painting, wall decor, silverware pattern or other decorative accent in the room, such as your wooden wall wine racks or wrought iron wall grilles.

It is also helpful to practice your stencil first on a piece of painted drywall before taking your design to the walls. Paint the drywall in the same shade as the wall for the most accurate results. This is especially helpful if you will be mixing and blending colors in your stencil; you can figure out which colors look best and practice your technique to perfection.

To stencil a border around the top of the room or at chair rail height, measure a straight line and lightly mark it with a pencil to keep the position of your stencil straight and level. Use painter’s tape to hold the stencil in place while you work, then carefully remove it taking care to not smear the wet paint. Wipe the back of the stencil before repositioning it to do the next section, in case any damp paint seeped through to the reverse side. If your stencil involves more than one color, it is recommended to do all one color first and let it dry completely before moving on to the next color.

Step back and take a look at your work from time to time. One of the advantages of stenciling is that if you are not satisfied with the results, it’s easy to paint over the design and start again.