These stenciled HOME panels are something you can make for your home in a weekend! They also make great house-warming gifts. Because these stencils were to be single-use stencils, I cut them from vinyl that I get for free.
Materials and Supplies to Make the Stenciled HOME Panels
(This post contains affiliate links to one or more of the items I used in this project – which means, if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission. There is no added cost to you!)
- Four (4) Square Stretched Canvas Panels – such as these 10″x10″ panels
- Stencil Designs (in my Resource Library)
- Basecoat Paint – You pick the color
- Stencil Paint – You pick the color
- Paint brush
- Stencil Brush – such as Plaid’s The Natural 3/4″ Stencil Brush
- Painter’s Tape
- Palette (foam or plastic plate)
- Paper towels
About the Stretched Canvas Panels
You can use whatever size panels you want for this or similar projects. The stretched canvas panels are pre-primed canvas stretched over a wood frame.
What I like about these is they have depth. They stick out from the wall. They are not flat boards. You could use the flat canvas boards and put them in frames. They might look very interesting in four different frames you pick up at a garage sale or thrift store.
For this Stenciled HOME Panels project, I used 10″ x 10″ stretched canvas panels.
About the Stencils
You will cut your own stencils to make this project. In my free Resource Library, I have provided the patterns so you can either hand-cut your stencils or you can use the .SVG files to cut the stencils from vinyl on your craft machine, such as the Cricut. The stencil files contain the letters H, O, M, E, the silhouette of the cow head (the same one I used in this project), and a heart. You could choose to replace any of the letters with something that suits you better. Have fun with it. This is YOUR craft!
Use a low-tack vinyl for your stencils. You want the stencils to peel off without taking off the basecoat paint.
If you want to learn how to acquire vinyl for free when you need vinyl for a stencil (that you will just throw away anyway), you can read my post about how to talk to a sign shop to acquire their vinyl scraps. They throw away scraps that are larger than your cutting mat.
This post does not describe how to cut vinyl on a craft machine. I assume you are familiar with your machine and design software. The .SVG file format is the most universally accepted format. If you have a new Cricut and want to learn how to use it, check out the Love Your Cricut Mini Course at the JenniferMaker site.
Download the files and bring them into your designer application. You may need to scale the files in your design software to prepare for the cutting. You may remove the registration marks from the files by ungrouping the elements and deleting the registration marks.
Whether you plan to hand-cut your own stencils or cut them from vinyl in your craft machine, you will have to scale the design to fit the size panels you choose. The designs are set for 10″ x 10″ panels.
For this Stenciled HOME Panels project, I used stencils cut from vinyl.
About the Paints
I made these stenciled HOME panels for one of my daughters and her husband who recently moved into a new home. She knew I was making these and chose the colors and the cow silhouette for the “O” in HOME.
The basecoat I used is flat white latex wall paint.
The stencil paint color I used is Burnt Sienna.
About the Stencil Brush
When selecting a stencil brush, you want one that is a size appropriate to your project. What I mean is you want to select the stencil brush diameter that best fits the size of the openings in the stencil. If you have a stencil with large openings, you need to use a stencil brush with a larger diameter, such as a 3/4″ brush. For most of my stenciling projects I use 3/4″ or 5/8″ stencil brushes. My own rule of thumb is that I want the diameter of the brush to be close to the size of most the openings in the stencil. This is a very loose rule because not all the openings are the same size. There are some projects for which I use multiple brushes in varying sizes.
Step 1 – Preparing the Canvas Panels
The first step in making the stenciled HOME panels is to basecoat the canvas. The panels come pre-primed with gesso. Gesso is a combination of plaster of Paris or some other whitening compound in a glue. It has been the traditional base for painting for centuries.
Using a regular paint brush and the basecoat paint, cover the front surface and all four sides/edges of the panels. You can do as many layers of basecoat as you feel you need for your project. Because the gesso is white and my basecoat is white, I only did one coat. When I made my stenciled damask floorcloth, I painted two coats of dark blue latex wall paint as the basecoat.
Let the basecoat dry completely. Overnight will be best. You don’t want your vinyl stencils pulling off your basecoat.
Step 2 – Applying the Stencils
There are a few techniques to getting your stencils onto your project. As you do more stenciling projects, you’ll start leaning toward whichever techniques works best for you.
Vinyl Stencils
Position the stencils so that they are centered on the panels. The .SVG files provide a registration mark on each of the four sides that you can choose to include in your cut to help in aligning the stencils.
I used two different alignment techniques so you can see a couple of ways to do this.
Alignment Technique 1
This method better if your vinyl is not the same size as the panels.
- Place a piece of painter’s tape at the approximate center of each edge of the front surface of the canvas panels.
- Measure the panels to find the center of each side. Mark the centers on the tape.
- Align your registration marks to the center line marks you drew on the tape.
Alignment Technique 2
This method works great if your vinyl is close to the same size as the panels.
- Cut off the four corners of the vinyl.
- Look down over the vinyl to align those cutouts to the corners of the panels.
Lightly burnish the vinyl in place. don’t press too hard. You want this vinyl to come off.
Remove the masking/transfer medium.
If you included the register marks in the cutting of your vinyl stencil, cover these openings with a piece of tape so you don’t accidentally paint through them.
Mylar Stencils
If you hand-cut your stencils from Mylar or transparency film, make sure you have marked the centers of the design on your stencil. You can do this with a permanent marker.
- Place a piece of painter’s tape at the approximate center of each edge of the front surface of the canvas panels.
- Measure the panels to find the center of each side. Mark the centers on the tape.
- Align your center line marks with the center line marks you made on the four edges of the front of the canvas.
- Tape the stencils to the canvas panels.
Step 3 – Stenciling
When stenciling on the stretched canvas panels, you will find it helpful to put something under the canvas that fits inside the frame. I often use a book for this purpose. You won’t want the canvas flexing and stretching out while stenciling. Having something that fits inside the frame will allow you to stencil on the canvas without stretching it.
Squeeze out a dollop of paint onto the palette.
Lightly touch the end of the bristles onto the paint. Touch onto not push into. Stenciling is a dry brush technique. You will NEVER dip a stencil brush into water until it’s time to clean your brushes.
On another part of the palette, swirl the bristles around to evenly distribute the paint on the ends of the bristles.
Hold your brush perpendicular to the stencil and, with a pouncing motion, start tapping the ends of the bristles onto the surface. You will need to go back to your dollop of paint to reload the brush when the paint application begins to fade.
Instead of a series of pictures, I made a video of me stenciling the letter H. Don’t worry, I sped up the middle part of the video so it is about half a minute long. Watching the whole thing in real-time would be boring. 🙂
Continue until you have completely filled the stenciling area and the paint application is even. You may choose to do a second coat. For my stenciled damask floor cloth I used a dark blue base coat and stenciled in white. With the white on dark, I wanted the white to be very striking so I did two coats.
Repeat for all your panels.
Step 4 – The Big Reveal!
I have been stenciling for over 25 years and this part never gets old! It’s so exciting to see the beautiful design revealed.
Very carefully remove the stencils from the panels.
If you hand-cut your stencils, remove the tape and the stencils, then clean your stencils for using again in the future. Again, these stenciled HOME panels make great house-warming gifts.
Now you get to hang your stenciled panels on the wall. Hang them horizontally, vertically, diagonally, stacked in a square… however you like. No matter how you place them, you now have a beautiful set of stenciled HOME panels with colors that match your home!
Did you make this?
If you made this, I would love to see what you did, see your colors, anything different you did to make it uniquely yours, and how it looks in your home. Join me on Facebook and share how you made these stenciled HOME panels!
You can pin this post to your favorite home decor or crafting board to help you find this project when you’re ready to DIY!
Other Posts About Cutting Vinyl
If you are new to cutting vinyl or just want to try some new projects, then you can click these links to try some of the things I have blogged about that use vinyl somewhere in the project such as using vinyl for a stencil or an etching mask.
- How to get Vinyl for Free (my most popular!)
- Love Your Home! …with These Easy to Make Stenciled HOME Panels
- Royally Etched and Painted Crown Bottles
- Stenciled Tudor Rose Box
- DIY “Create” Sign for Craft Room
- Stenciled NOEL Canvas Holiday Panels
- Believe! – Christmas Plaque
- Kitchen Canister Labels: Organize Your Kitchen
- Shadow Box Heart Art – You Make My Heart Soar!
- Clean and Dirty Dishwasher Magnet
- Gift Poem for the New Mom and Dad
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