A fresh look at stencils

Just before I set out for faux college, I clicked on over to the Royal Design Studio website, looking for some idea I had seen a few months back. And what to my wondering eyes did appear but a completely revamped website with an entire department devoted to "inspiration." Stencils have come a long way baby, from the days of country kitchens.

The pink, white and black one above really got me to thinking about my girls' bathroom. It could use a little jazzing up, and this stencil combination certainly would do it. Then there's the circles and rings stencil combination we're considering for one of the Sunday School rooms at church. We're trying to de-institutionalize it by removing the pale yellow paint and spice it up with bluish gray & chocolate.

Our plan is to throw a hip shag rug in the middle of the floor, slipcover some benchy chairs and put in a Playstation for those moments when we're not screaming about Jesus. (just kidding).

I've never met her, but Melanie Royals' stencils and the way they're combined with faux finishes can be really cool. Now the industry is moving into Modellos, which are like stencils but they are one-time use adhesive-backed designs. One application to a ceiling, for example and then you can work away, coming in with colors, textures, more glazes, without having to move the stencil around, cleaning and taping and lining up and taping some more.

Here's one more stencil combination I like from the revamped Royal Design Studio website:

I can see some of thes floating around my daughter's rooms. Or, I may like this one better:

Just remember stencils always look better in combination with some kind of softening or aging faux glazes. That way, the design is there, but it's not screaming at you.