Interior Designing: Graining and Stencilling Ideas

Graining

Graining is the process by which different types of wood grain are imitated, ranging from simple grains to more complex grains such as English walnut.

There are two types of graining : coarse (rustic) and fine (polite).

Layers are built up using water colours, before being finished with an oil glaze. For the water colours, use a beer solution tinted with a pigment or Indian inks. By varying the amount of water, a different colour of grain can be achieved.

Stencilling

Ensuring you have a clean smooth wall is the first part of stencilling. Next, position the stencil on the wall, and secure it using masking tape. You may wish to use a spirit level, depending on the size of the stencil, as a larger stencil will make any level errors more obvious.

With the stencil secured, pour a small amount of paint onto a plate, and put some paint on the brush. Then, dab the brush on a paper towel to remove any excess. Next, paint in the stencil, using a either swirling (circular) motion or a tapping motion, moving from the outside to the inside of the stencil gap. It is possible to use a sponge to paint the stencil, depending on the texture you wish to achieve.

Once all the stencil gaps are painted, you will probably need to replace the stencil to paint the overlapping design. Care must be taken to ensure the alignment is correct, as some designs may have more than one overlapping stencil depending on the complexity.

When all the layers are complete, the final design should have clean, crisp edges. Too much paint can cause blotchiness, and can also allow the paint to seep out beneath the stencil gap. If this happens, ensure the stencil is dry before continuing.

If using a stencil design several times in a room, the stencils will probably require wiping, to remove excess paint, and thus prevent unwanted marks around stencils.

If using more than one colour for your stencil design, using one brush per colour is the best method as it means no washing is required between applying colours, and means that colours don't become accidentally contaminated or watered down.

An alternative stencilling method is using a sponge to apply the actual stencil. By cutting a pattern into a synthetic, flat surfaced sponge. Using a biscuit cutter, or a similar implement, a pattern can be cut into the surface of the sponge. Then, by dipping the sponge into a plate of paint, it is possible to practice suing the sponge on scrap paper, in order to establish the ideal amount of paint required, or how much pressure to apply to the sponge , too much may result in a blotchy effect, and allowing the sponge to press too hard may result in the non-cut areas coming into contact with the wall, ruining the texture.

More Stencilling Ideas