You don't have to be a skilled artist to paint custom designs on your walls, cabinets, mirrors or shelves. Craft store stencils come in a wide range of patterns and sizes. All you have to do is spray paint a pattern over the stencil. And "Presto!" your home will never look the same again. Here's a handful of charming ways to decorate your living space with craft stencils.
Add a Faux Chair Rail to Your Dining Room
Though chair rail molding is expensive to install, you can create the same illusion on the cheap, using craft stencils. Look for a stencil in a long, thin trellis pattern. Use dark, semi-glossy paint finish (such as egg shell). Keep wiping the stencil clean and moving it along the wall until you create a pattern that runs in the middle of the wall from one end of the room to the other. With this stencil decor your dining room will look more elegant than ever.
Frame Your Windows in Elegance
Using a thin, elegant stencil, you can paint a pattern around your window casing. Paint your pattern in white, to match the window casing and extend its effect. Or choose bright colors like green, to create the illusion of garlands wrapping around your windows. For a less prominent execution of this decorating idea, paint a pattern at the window corners only.
Add Beauty to Plain Shelves
Bring a new life to old wall units or shelves by painting a pattern over the back wall of the shelf. Choose an alphabetical stencil if you wish to write a message there (perhaps a quote from your favorite poem). Or spray paint silhouettes of things, such as trees for a nature motif, animals for pet lovers, or flowers for a brightly decorated room.
Ornament Plain Mirrors
If you bathroom mirror is made of plain glass glued to the wall, use a craft stencil to ornament the borders, as if the mirror is framed. For a hallway mirror, spray paint a pattern all over the mirror using frosted glass paint. For mirrors in children's rooms and bathrooms, spray paint story-book figures or amusing shapes such as cars for boys or butterflies for girls.
Enhance the Beauty of Your Kitchen
Give your plain kitchen cabinets a personality. Decorate the doors of the cabinets with craft stencil images at the corners. Or spray paint whimsical silhouettes on just a few cabinets, such as butterflies, birds or insects. And for a truly dramatic appeal, spray paint a large fleur-de-lis in black in the middle of each cabinet.
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