Porch Stencil

Better late than never right? I’m finally sitting down to share my experience stenciling our porch. It’s been a few weeks and we are still loving it. Before I share my process, I want to share this post from LollyJane that I used for inspiration.

Completed stencil

When we had our exterior painted, I had the painters prep and paint the porch as well. The basic process was to clean of the porch, scrap and sand any existing chips from the previous paint, and then power wash it. They let it dry over night and the next day added two coats of Plymouth Grey. I’m so grateful I outsourced this part because the rest of it was time consuming!

My painter told me I needed to stencil within a week or two and of course I waited as long as possible to start. The fresh porch looked so good I was hesitant to mess it up. But I finally started and I’m so glad I did. I used a basic white water based paint from Kelly Moore.

It took me a minute to find the best place to start, with an older home none of your edges and lines are straight. I decided to start on the second row from the wall to help maintain a straight line and it worked. I did the bulk of the porch before doing the edges or tight spaces. I recommend doing this so you can cut your stencil for easier access.

When you stencil, use less paint than you think you’ll need and give yourself at least double the time you think you’ll need. The stencil I used recommended dabbing the paint on not rolling and I’m so glad I did. I think it helped stop some bleeding. I used a little box to keep my paint can in and every time I dipped my paint brush I would dab off extra paint inside the box. This helped maintain mess.

That’s basically all! Just stencil, stencil, stencil. I did not seal the porch, my painter said it wasn’t necessary and I had some personal issues pop up so I skipped it! It will probably chip a little but that’s okay! I would recommend two or three stencils so you have extras to trim for the edges, clean your materials often, and don’t be scared to mess up! Overall, it took me a week of working during nap time and after dinner!