Use stenciled patterns to personalize nursery, other rooms
One of the most joyful decorating experiences has got to be preparing a nursery. All the dreams and good wishes for our children start here. This room represents a starting point and a safe haven where bunny rabbits can talk, bees whisper secrets, wild animals are our best friends and birds teach us how to fly.
We spend many hours in the nursery, day and night, feeding, changing and reading and singing to our babies, so this room is a haven for moms and dads too. You have a happy range of colors and themes from which to choose, and my advice is to go with what your inner child loves.
Stencil patterns can be reproduced on virtually any surface. Make each item your own — repeat part of the stencil, add a second stencil or stencil other words or phrases.”
I visited my good friend, TV buddy, decorative artist and teacher Jimmy Connelly at his Toronto studio ( www.
jimconnellystudios.com) and was inspired by a series of pillows and accessories he had created around the theme of nesting. What a perfect image for a nursery! We got busy with the paints and thought about painting on fabric and all the ways you could use stencils — and here are the results. The painted-fabric nest pillows are an easy project that can be replicated on curtain panels, bedding or a piece of fabric to be displayed as a picture. Here’s how we did it:
The 20-by-20-inch ready-made cover for the large cushion is cotton. It’s important to use cotton so the paint will be absorbed. You can use any water-based paint. We used Chalk Paint decorative paint by Annie Sloan, two paint brushes, a 2-inch bristle brush for the border, a stencil brush and a bird stencil (this one is called Kingfisher and is wearing a crown).
Cut a piece of cardboard to fit your cover, and slip it into the cushion cover so the paint won’t bleed through to the back panel.
For the borders, thin the paint with water, then use the 2-inch paintbrush to apply a 4-inch turquoise border. Follow with thinned pink paint, overlapping the turquoise border by 2 inches. Paint the center of the panel with thinned cream paint.
The cover is going to be wet, but that’s OK. Continue with the stenciling. Use tape to hold down the stencil. Using a stencil brush, stencil stone gray paint over the entire stencil pattern (bird, branch and lettering). Next, stencil turquoise over the bird’s breast and tail, pink for the wing and gold for the crown. Create the bird’s eye by dipping the end of a thin brush in black paint and dabbing in place.
To create a drop shadow on the letters, remove the tape and move the stencil up and to the right about 1/4 inch. Fill in the letters with gold. The letters will now appear gold with a gray shadow.
Once you have started painting, it’s hard to stop.
A lampshade is easy to decorate with graduated color, creating an ombre effect that imitates the look of a night sky. As you move from top to bottom of the shade, gradually thin the paint to make it a lighter version of the same color.
Stencil patterns can be reproduced on virtually any surface. Make each item your own — repeat part of the stencil, add to your stencil picture with a second stencil of trailing ivy or stencil other words or phrases.