How to Stencil on a Vintage Find [+Video!]

Hi there–I hope you’re having a good week! I’ll be at a wedding today, the 3rd in 30 days (crazy right?). But I have a small project for you today: how to stencil on a vintage find. I am a true stencil lover and have posted numerous times about stenciling on all kinds of vintage junk.

What makes today’s post different is that I’ve made a short video–Stenciling 101–that shows me (my hands anyway) giving a stenciling tutorial. I’d love to hear what you think of it.

NOTE: This post contains affiliate links for [the same or similar] products used to complete the project discussed. This is both for your convenience as well as to support my website, since I receive a small compensation whenever you click on a link and make any sort of purchase, for which I thank you 🙂 See my full disclosure here.

I kept it short and sweet, but tried to talk about some common pitfalls.

The project starts with this black crate, a hand-me-down from a friend. To prepare it for stenciling I simply sponged it off and let it air dry.

[NOTE: I wrote a post about the unfinished box in the photo last year: When to Give a Vintage Crate an Upgrade.]

You don’t need many supplies for stenciling.

Materials:

• Stencil of your choice (here’s one similar to mine)
• White craft paint
• Stencil brush
• Paper plate (or piece of cardboard)
• Painter’s tape (not shown).

[NOTE: The stencil I used, “Fresh Flowers 50¢/Bunch” is a Vintage Sign Stencil from Angie who blogs at Knick of Time. It comes on one large sheet, but I cut it up because I like to used different parts of it in different ways. I’m not sure if she’s still offering them.]

Watch the video below to see how I stenciled “FRESH” onto a sheet of paper. [You use the same technique for wood, painted surfaces, and metal.]

Let me know if you found my video helpful, and if so, I’ll do some more in the future 🙂

You may have noticed in the video that after dipping the brush into the paint and pouncing off the excess, I mentioned that it looked good, but you couldn’t actually see it because it was off-screen, LOL.

So here’s a photo of the brush with just the right amount of paint on it, ready for pouncing on the stencil.

After some [eye ball] measuring, I went ahead and stenciled the crate–it took about ten minutes, total. After the paint dried, I filled it with hosta leaves and forget-me-nots from my garden. The crate works well on my black painted kitchen table and contrasts nicely with the grain sack style table runner.

If the empty spaces found between the various parts of each letter bother you, then feel free to fill them in with some paint. This tends to give projects a more finished look.

But with crates, I usually opt to leave them “as is” to achieve a more industrial aesthetic. When filling in, I use a tiny brush or the narrow end of a makeup sponge and tackle the spaces very slowly.

This is the first time I’ve paired up hosta with forget-me-nots, but they are all I had growing in my garden at the time (last week).

All of the sudden, this week, my wild geraniums and another [unidentified] pink flower have popped out. My peony are still tight little balls, though. How is your garden doing?

One of my goals in writing this post, is not just to demonstrate how easy stenciling is, but to get you thinking about the wide variety of vintage items that you can stencil on, like side tables.

Trays.

Terracotta pots.

Vintage coolers.

And even vintage tools.

Given our current love affair with using words to decorate with, the possibilities seem endless. What other vintage items have you stenciled on, or thought about stenciling on? Do you have a favorite word(s)?

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Bye for now,

I’d love it if you’d pin me!