Decorating with Stencilled Words

Recently I had my sunroom painted. For years it was a sunny yellow, but with some other changes made in my home in surrounding rooms, it became clear that this room needed a fresh face as well.

In the "yellow years", I had this biblical quote hand stencilled around the fan window: "And God said, 'Let there be light.' And there was light. And God saw that the light was good...."

One of the reasons I had put off re-painting the sunroom was that I knew I would have to paint over the stencilling which I liked very much. And, just as I thought, when the room was repainted in Sherwin-Williams "Honeydew", though I very much liked the fresh new color, I did miss my stencilled words around the window. Normally, I wouldn't re-create the same look as before, but truly the window, view, and setting are perfect for these words and I could not think of a thing there that I would like better.

Luckily, I had taken some good photos of the words before they were painted over, and even luckier, a friend who had lent me the stencils years before, still had them. This was really lucky because I had gone everywhere looking for stencils but could not find any with this font that I truly liked and wanted. But how I am the most lucky, is that my assistant who works with me on my decorating jobs has this visually mathematical brain thingy going on (me...not so much!) and was able to figure out exactly how to place the lettering as before. Once that was done, I took on the task of applying the paint with the stencil brushes.

I know you are wondering why I didn't just order wall words and presto! press on these words rather than opt for the old-fashioned way. Well, first it was challenging to order these for a fan window and figure all the dimensions of the arch and that is what those companies were telling me I needed to do. And, it was pretty costly for the size and length of quote. But mostly, in this room, with this quote, I liked the hand-applied look of the stencils and how the paint wasn't perfectly the same for each letter. I liked the variations of the color and not knowing for certain what it would really look like until it was completed.

It took many hours, I have to admit, but I am pleased that I had such a hand in the finished product. Every now and then, old-fashioned is just the right thing.

Beth Batke
www.finaltouchesredesign.com