MOROCCAN QUATREFOIL ALLOVER PATTERN STENCILLING

Hi everyone! Ideal Stencils has been busy testing out one of our new all over wallpaper pattern stencils – Moroccan Quatrefoil pattern stencil – and thought we would share with you how the project went and just how easy it is to beautifully decorate your walls with one of our repeat pattern stencils.

Prepare the surface to stencil & choose your paint colours

The first thing to do is make sure before starting any wall stencilling project is to make sure that the wall space is all prepared and ready to paint. And then you can choose what colours/colour combinations you are going to use for your project, this will all depend on the feel, theme, scheme you want to achieve. We decided on using a grey colour to create a subtle, neutral and calm effect.

Materials needed for our Moroccan pattern stencilling project:

Paint (this project took us 4-5 tester pots) stencil, spirit level, ruler, pencil, dense foam roller, stencil brush, polystyrene plate, repositionable spray mount, painters taps, kitchen towels.

Mark your wall with a straight line and adhere and position your stencil

We started by drawing a horizontal light pencil line across the wall using the spirit level. This is to line up the top edge of our stencil before we paint our first repeat.
Next spray the back of your stencil with a light misting of repositionable spray mount, leave the back of the stencil to become tacky and then position your stencil in the middle of the wall (you can also use pieces of painters tape to hold your stencil in position)

Load and offload your roller so it is ready to use

Load your dense foam roller with paint. Empty some paint out onto your polystyrene plate and roll your roller through it a few times to evenly coat your roller. Then roll the roller off onto the paper towels. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP – NOT TO BE MISSED. Your roller wants to not have any visible paint build up on it and almost look dry. Too much paint on your roller will cause paint to bleed under the edges of the stencil causing a blotchy result.

Start painting your stencil

Then the fun part. It’s time to start painting your stencil. Using light to medium pressure roll the paint over the stencil. When your roller feels like your are having to press too hard it is time to reload your roller.

Align your stencil to repeat the pattern

The stencil lines up with previously painted areas allowing for easy alignment over your wall area. “Don’t panic!” if the design doesn’t line up perfectly – just be as accurate as you can. In the end, your eye will not notice any slight misalignments. You can use a hair dryer on a medium to light heat to quickly dry the painted area before lining up and painting the next repeat. (don’t hold it to close to the stencil )

Use as much or as little paint as you want. If you think that you need to add another layer of paint just roll over it again. But I like the ‘one layer, hand painted worn and antique kind of look’. Repeat the stencil in the same manner over your wall area.

Paint into corners by bending and taping your stencil

Now let’s talk about how to tackle and stencil the pattern in the top/bottom, the sides of the walls and up to the door frame. When you get to these areas you must mask off with the decorators tape to avoid painting on areas you don’t want to. When you get to the bottom skirting board, line up your stencil and tape it into position. Simply bend the stencil and using a ruler or your fingers, push the stencil into the corners and using your stencil brush paint in the areas you cannot get to with the roller.

You use this same method at the sides and around door frames or any other obstacles such as light switches or plug sockets.

Cleaning your stencil

You only have to wash and clean your stencil when the paint build up on the stencil starts to compromise the results you are getting. The stencil started to curl up a bit around certain areas of the design so we decided to clean our stencil about 2/3 of the way through the project. As this was a large A1 stencil we had to do it in the bath, if it was smaller the kitchen sink would be good. Simply fill the bath with some warm water and soak the stencil until the paint starts to soften, we left the stencil for about an hour. We then cleaned the stencil using washing up liquid and a washing up pad. Washing up brushes are also good for cleaning your stencil. We draped the stencil over the side of the bath which is a great surface to scrub against. Obviously take care not to bend or damage any of the detailed areas. When the stencil was clean we patted it dry with paper towels and hung it up on a trouser hanger to dry. (Which is also a great way to store larger stencils post project)

The finished painted Moroccan pattern

We were really pleased with the final results of our Moroccan Quatrefoil stencilling project. We have added pattern to our wall at relatively low cost and it was much more fun and easier than hanging wallpaper.  The grey colour done in a single layer looked great because it looked very much like smoke fired pottery or clay which gave a very natural effect.

WHAT WOULD WE DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME?

Though our project turned out really well, its was a bit fiddly to paint in the top row of the design near the picture rail. Next time I would start at the picture rail and find an area of wall where I could do a unobstructed vertical row right down to the bottom. This would give you a nice vertical row to work from and make the whole process a lot easier…you live and learn! Remember to  make sure your stencil is level before you start (don’t use the rail as a guide as they are often not level)

Tell us what you think of our Moroccan all over stencil decorating project. Leave a comment below as we would love to hear your thoughts!

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