Kitchen Essential

A stencilled frieze on your kitchen wall is a lovely and very individual decorative touch.

You can also stencil a border or motif on your kitchen cupboards, the backs of wooden chairs or on a painted table.

Step by step

1 Draw your design onto a sheet of acrylic film or a piece of manila cardboard using a felt-tipped pen. If using cardboard first strengthen it by liberally applying a mixture of 50 per cent linseed oil and 50 per cent turpentine (white spirit) to both sides of the board. Allow it to soak in and then rub off excess moisture with a soft cloth.

Carefully cut out the stencil with a sharp craft knife or a surgical scalpel.

2 Using masking tape, fasten the stencil in position. Make sure the edges of the stencil are straight, and the design a uniform distance in from the edges so that you can simply butt the stencil up to the cornice, worktop or door frame when positioning it.

If your frieze is to go around corners, take measurements first to establish where a corner will occur in the pattern. Small positional adjustments at the start may prevent difficult or awkward painting at the corner. Some designs will simply slide around the corner with no visible disruption to their continuity — others are clearly unbalanced as they turn. Sometimes you can stop the stencil just slightly short of the corner and simply take some single design element and place it right in the corner, continuing the stencil again on the other side.

3 Pour a little acrylic or emulsion paint into a saucer. Do not add any water, and be sure your brush is dry. Using a dabbing movement, dip the brush into the paint, dabbing off any excess. It may be necessary to paint a few strokes first, on spare fabric or kitchen towels to make sure the brush holds only a minimum of paint. Too much paint on the brush will seep under the stencil edges and cause indistinct outlines.

Start to fill in the stencil design with paint using a dabbing movement. Do not stroke the brush. Don’t try to make the paint coverage entirely even. Part of the charm of stencilling is that paint shades and definition will inevitably differ from motif to motif. Once the paint is almost dry remove stencil carefully. It is important not to allow excess paint to build up on the cut stencil, so either wipe over or wash the stencil between uses. Dry paint buildup can distort the outlines of the stencil and encourage paint to seep in and blur the edges.

4 Once the first motif is finished and the paint is almost dry, you may position the stencil again to continue the border pattern. Acrylic paint dries very quickly (2-3 minutes). This repositioning is easy with acrylic sheeting because it’s transparent. If you’re using manila cardboard, notch the edges of it and use the notches as a repositioning guide.

If you have blurred the edge of an outline, quick attention will solve the problem. Usually a water-dampened cotton bud can be used to wipe this edge or to fix any other small mistake. Touch-ups with a fine paintbrush can be useful for redefining small areas you have missed or that are indistinct.

The navy-blue kitchen cupboard fronts are softened by pale coffee walls, and then stylishly balanced with a navy stencil of traditional willow leaves. The contrast in textures is extended with the displayed collection of old and new willow cane baskets

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