The ultimate guide to paint stencils on furniture easy

I have a lot of older and dated looking furniture which is still in pretty good condition. Sometimes I think I should really get rid of it but then again, I don’t really want to. Also I just don’t have the budget for new furniture right now. Can you resonate with me?

So if you are in the same situation wondering what to do with dated furniture – here are some great and easy tips for you.

All the material you need to do this project is not expensive – you might have it in your garage.

The ultimate guide to paint stencils on furniture easy

What you need for painting furniture

It is actually pretty easy to update older furniture if you are using the right paint. I normally use Milk Paint or Chalk Paint because it is thicker than regular paint and adheres so much better to wood or metal.

But if you want to paint a small dresser in different colors, it can get pricy. This is why I make my own chalk paint. Here is how:

Before you order anything, check what you have at home. Maybe you have an old glass jar or masking tape somewhere you can use.

This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Shopping List with links

• Medium and small foam roller
• Medium and small brush
• Calcium Carbonate
• Glass Containers with lid
• Sample paints (get them from Lowes or similar)
• Rust-oleum paint and cover in white
• Masking tape or frog tape

How to make Chalk Paint

Mix a couple of spoons of Calcium Carbonate well with warm water to get a smooth consistency. Combine with your sample paint, mix thoroughly until smooth and that’s it. The paint is thicker and covers so much better, you don’t need to sand the furniture before painting.

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The ultimate guide to paint stencils on furniture starts here

How to paint furniture

Start by cleaning the furniture well. Use warm soapy water to clean it. If it is really dirty, use deglosser to get all the grease and grime off.

If the furniture color is very dark, spray paint a primer over it. It also saves you paint color if you only have a small sample on hand.

• Always shake the spray paint well before using
• use the spray paint only outside
• lay the furniture flat to prevent drippings while spraying
• keep the recommended distance when spray painting
• let the primer dry then start painting with a foam roller

Use the small brush and paint all the corners and edges first. Then use your small or medium size roller to paint all the surfaces evenly.

• Roll the foam roller in the paint tray a couple of times
• Don’t overload the roller with paint
• Use very little pressure to roll the paint onto the surface
• Roll in one direction
• Let it dry
• Roll another coat of paint onto the furniture.
• Let dry
• Check if it is completely covered
• Use a little brush to go over imperfections

Now do you like what you are seeing? It looks already so much better, right?

But you want to add a stencil onto your furniture. This is how you start adding a stencil on your furniture:

How to paint a stencil on your furniture

How to add a stencil

Get your second paint color and make chalk paint out of it.

Mix a couple of spoons of Calcium Carbonate well with warm water to get a smooth consistency. Combine with your sample paint, mix thoroughly until smooth and that’s it.

Decide where you want to place your stencil on the furniture. Tape the corners of the stencil so it stays in the right position.

This is the foam roller you need for adding a stencil on furniture. The little foam roller doesn’t hold a lot of paint and in order to get sharp lines, you need to add just a little paint.

• Pour your accent color into the tray
• Roll the foam roller a couple of times in the paint so it is covered with paint all around
• Roll some of the paint off again
• Easily roll the roller onto the stencil
• Make sure you cover all of the stencil
• Keep the stencil on and let it dry
• Check thoroughly if all of the cutouts are covered with paint
• When dry take the stencil off.

Examples

Examples where you can paint stencils on furniture

There is so much you can do with stencils. I love to add a personal touch to floors, doors, furniture. I add a stencil to everything that looks ordinary and needs a little glam.

So here are my examples of updating furniture with stencils:

My outdoor table was pretty old and the wood needed paint desperately. So this is what I did. I painted the table white and added the pink stencil in the middle of the table.

I added the green edges as an accent color and it fits well with the cushions.

I added stencils on my deck on wood floors. The wood looked pretty bad and the stencils added a nice add on and distracted from the old look.

A part of my old deck received this makeover to cover up the very dated look. This is a whole section of another deck I completely stenciled.

I added a stencil on my barn door because it looked a little boring without anything.

Here is my metal cabinet with a stencil. This cabinet looks so pretty now, you should see the before picture.

My kitchen table was scratched pretty bad. My husband told me to get rid of it but I made this out of it:

If you use a stencil on a table you should use a Top Coat to protect the paint from scratching off. This coat I have used on all of my interior projects and love it.

Where can you buy stencils?

Where can you buy stencils?

If you wonder now where you can buy stencils, no problem. I bought mine at Michael’s but you can also get stencils at Walmart or Amazon. You can order them right here:

Here are some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

So as you can see, there are a lot of options if you want to update furniture, walls or floors with stencils. The great thing is you can use the stencil as often as you want to. Just clean it after use and store it flat.

And the best part is you can do it all alone and see great results in an afternoon.

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Summary of ‘The ultimate guide to stenciling furniture easy’

Before you get rid of a desk or a table to buy new, think about it. Is it only the dated look or why do you want to buy new? You can save a lot of money if you get a sample paint, a brush and a roller (which will cost you not even $ 20). And then just paint your older furniture piece.

If you like the extraordinary, add a pretty stencil to really update the piece. It is definitely worth the time spend painting and adding a stencil to it.

The money you spend on the paint, brush and stencil is so much cheaper than buying something new. And on top of that, you create something really different you can not buy anywhere.

So try it out, it is a fast and easy project to do.

If you have questions put them in the comments.

See you at the blog,

Conny xoxo

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