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Straightforward Guide to Stenciling a Wall Without Bleeding

This post first appeared on Hometalk and was sponsored by Stencil Revolution. All opinions are my own.

What happened to the days of just wallpaper and paint? Those used to be our only options as far as giving a wall a makeover. Thank goodness today we have so many more options! One of those options is giving a wall a makeover with a stencil! Let me show you how I’m going to give our bathroom wall a fun makeover with a buffalo check stencil from Stencil Revolution.

I thought long and hard as far as where I could stencil a wall in our home. Ultimately, I decided on creating a stencil wall in our master bathroom. Let me show you.

The wall before stenciling it

You are probably wondering why I’m doing just one wall in our master bathroom.

Since our master bathroom is small, I didn’t want to add too much visual interest to the main walls, so I chose to do the first wall you see when you come into the room. I thought this would still add a little dimension without being overwhelming.

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Materials to stencil a wall

How to stencil a wall without bleeding

  1. Prep the surface and wipe the wall down with a damp cloth to remove dust. If needed, sand areas down that are loose or cracked first. You want the wall to be smooth and clean.
  2. Grab the ruler and level and draw a straight line at the ceiling. Most ceilings aren’t straight so make sure you don’t skip this step.
  3. Line the stencil up with the straight ceiling line. SEE NOTE BELOW. Most of the time you will not want to start at the ceiling (due to the stencil excess), but maybe one pattern level down.
  4. Use painters tape to tape as much of the edges of the stencil as you can. The flatter the stencil sits against your wall the better.
  5. Dip your brush into the paint and then offload your paint onto a paper towel. This is similar to a dry brush method.
  6. Stabilize the stencil with your hand or a tool like a ruler.
  7. DAB (keyword is dab) the paint brush onto the stencil on the wall. DAB DAB DAB (no I’m not talking about that new crazy dance everyone is doing, LOL). Don’t use painting motions as it can cause bleed through.
  8. After you’ve finished dabbing (is that a word?) the entire stencil, LET IT DRY. Be patient folks, you’ll thank me later.
  9. Once the paint is dry, slowly remove the stencil.
  10. Move the stencil down and line the top row of the stencil up with the bottom row of the painted pattern.
  11. Repeat steps 4-9
  12. Touch up paint as needed.

Where is the best place on the wall to start stenciling?

Note: I chose to start stenciling at the top of the wall. Lots of tutorials suggest starting in the middle of the wall and working your way out. When you walk in the bathroom the first thing you see is the top half of this wall, so I chose to make sure it looked good! I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer as to where to start. Every wall and every space might require a little different stenciling starting spot.

Let me share some in progress pictures.

You can see below where I used a level to make sure the ceiling was straight. Shockingly my ceiling was straight so I didn’t have to draw a straight starting line.

measuring the wall for the stencil

The next step in this process will depend on your stencil. This particular extra large wall stencil from stencil revolution had a few inches of excess on the top. I measured one block down from the top of the ceiling.

The purpose of this is so I could go back later and add one last row on the top. I didn’t want to cut the excess off of the stencil just so it would lay flat, not yet at least.

drawing a straight line to line it up with the stencil
This is the straight line I’ll use to line my stencil up with. It includes space for one more row. Don’t mind the extra lines near the top of the ceiling.
applying the stencil on the wall

Once I placed the stencil on the wall, I taped all the corners that I could.

the paint

You like the paint I’m using?

Wall Stencil Fail

I almost didn’t share this part; but I want to be real with y’all. The first attempt to stencil this wall was a huge bust. Let me show you what I did wrong so you won’t make the same mistake.

paint

I started with a fine finish roller (don’t use a roller!). Even though I didn’t plan to “roll” the pattern but lightly tap or dab the roller to the wall, it still created major bleed through.

rolling the paint off for the stencil

After I dipped the roller in paint I made sure to “offload” most of the paint onto a paper towel.

applying paint to the stencil on the wall

I tried my hardest to be gentle and lightly tap or dab the paint onto the stencil.

After I painted the entire stencil, waited a few minutes for most of it to dry, I removed the stencil and this is what I found…

Look at all that bleed through! Ugh, my heart sank. Total DIY fail.

After mulling over this for a minute I decided the roller wasn’t going to work and I would have to start over.

Time to repaint the wall and start with a blank slate.

Since I’ve shared the wrong way to stencil a wall that causes bleeding, let me share the right way now!

The key element to stenciling a wall without bleed through is using a round brush! You can also use a regular old paintbrush, but I feel like a round one works better.

Once the stencil is back up on the wall and secured with tape, grab that round brush.

I dipped the brush lightly in paint.

I offloaded the brush to remove the majority of the paint.

applying paint to the wall with the stencil

I used one hand to dab the paint onto the stencil while the other hand secured the stencil to the wall with a ruler.

I moved the ruler as close as I could to the square that I was painting (or dabbing) to keep the stencil flat on the wall. THIS IS KEY!

Once the paint was dry, I removed the stencil and held my breath…

This technique finally worked!

Finally I had a stenciled wall with minimal bleed through. Now to keep going!

The next stenciling obstacle I had to face was the light switch.

I measured enough room for two rows down and moved my stencil accordingly. I knew I would have to cut the stencil smaller to effectively be able to lay it flat. Just like with the ceiling area, I was going to wait until last to do that.

*I know having tape on the outlet is a no no. I left it on there just long enough to get the first row done.

how to stencil a wall
stenciling a wall around a light switch

Progress!

Once I stenciled the majority of the left side of the wall, I moved the stencil to the top right.

I lined the stencil up with the pattern on the left and determined that I would need to cut one row from the right side of the stencil.

stenciling a wall at the corner
cutting the stencil to fit the wall
stenciling the wall
progress of the stenciled wall

Looking good so far!

Now for the tricky part…cutting the stencil to work around those smaller areas like the ceiling and light switches.

I don’t have a how to list of how to do this. Just make sure you leave enough excess stencil to line it up with the pattern above or beside it.

stenciling the wall around the light switch

Here’s where I messed up again (did I really mess up again? yep, only me :)).

When lining your stencil up, pay attention to the pattern!

Can you see it? Somehow I painted a few extra blocks (and missed a few too). Nothing a little paint can’t fix.

I’m nearing the finish line!

The last important part to stenciling a wall is making sure you touch up those areas that don’t look great. It happens- I had a few.

stenciling a wall without bleeding

Y’all ready to see the reveal? Eeek, I’m so pleased with how it turned out.

stenciling a wall without bleeding
how to stencil a wall without bleeding

The wall goes so well with my DIY prism bracket shelves, don’t you think?

stenciling a wall without bleeding
stenciling a wall without bleeding
stenciling a wall without bleeding
how to stencil a wall without bleeding

How to Stencil a Wall Without Bleeding

how to stencil a wall without bleeding

Learn the best way to stenciling a wall without bleeding. I've shared tips and tricks for how to stencil a wall with a stencil revolution.

Active Time 3 hours
Total Time 3 hours
Difficulty Medium
Estimated Cost 50 dollars

Materials

  • Painters tape
  • Paint (I'm using regular old latex wall paint)
  • paint brush or round brush
  • Paint tray
  • Ruler/tape measure
  • Level
  • Stencil from Stencil Revolution
  • Damp washcloth (add soap if needed)

Instructions

  1. want the wall to be smooth and clean.
  2. Grab the ruler and level and draw a straight line at the ceiling. Most ceilings aren't straight so make sure you don't skip this step.
  3. Line the stencil up with the straight ceiling line. SEE NOTE BELOW. Most of the time you will not want to start at the ceiling (due to the stencil excess), but maybe one pattern level down.
  4. Use painters tape to tape as much of the edges of the stencil as you can. The flatter the stencil sits against your wall the better.
  5. Dip your brush into the paint and then offload your paint onto a paper towel. This is similar to a dry brush method.
  6. Stabilize the stencil with your hand or a tool like a ruler.
  7. DAB (keyword is dab) the paint brush onto the stencil on the wall. DAB DAB DAB (no I'm not talking about that new crazy dance everyone is doing, LOL). Don't use painting motions as it can cause bleed through.
  8. After you've finished dabbing (is that a word?) the entire stencil, LET IT DRY. Be patient folks, you'll thank me later.
  9. Once the paint is dry, slowly remove the stencil.
  10. Move the stencil down and line the top row of the stencil up with the bottom row of the painted pattern.
  11. Repeat steps 4-9
  12. Touch up paint as needed.

Notes

I chose to start stenciling at the top of the wall. Lots of tutorials suggest starting in the middle of the wall and working your way out. When you walk in the bathroom the first thing you see is the top half of this wall, so I chose to make sure it looked good.

Have I inspired you to stencil a wall in your home? I hope so.

Stencil Revolution makes great easy wall stencils for painting. Once I nailed down the right technique (and didn’t screw up the pattern, LOL), stenciling this wall without bleeding was a breeze.

Thanks for following guys!

Lindsey**

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  1. HARJITH D BUBBER says:

    This is beautiful. I wish I could do it !!! I bought the stencil but somehow cannot manage to stop the bleed !!! I love your wall

  2. Frankie Wright says:

    Lindsey,
    Thanks for the tutorial for stenciling! Your timing was perfect! My husband and I are going to trying stenciling in a bathroom at our mountain house.
    Your bathroom wall looks great!

  3. Becky says:

    Using a spray adhesive on the back of the stencil will also help to keep the stencil in place and helps to prevent bleed through. I highly recommend using the spray adhesive, especially when the stencil is large and has as many open cut out spaces as this one does. Also, the beauty of stenciling is that you aren’t going for perfection – you want to see some shading, some variation in the color. Keep your brush almost dry and start out with a softer, lighter look. You can then build up to some darker shading where desired. Just an option of course, but I think the variety in the shading will make the overall appearance of the wall more interesting.

  4. Jaxs says:

    The highest compliment I can give you is……it looks like wallpaper! Seriously fine work here. I have done a ton of stenciling in my life so I can tell you this is perfection! The pattern is wonderful, I think you really choose well on this. It’s elegant without being obtrusive. What a difference a wall can make. Just the one is just right.

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