French Poem Stenciled Table

Hello folks! I’ve been quite the busy little bee lately.  More and more people are finding about my wee little shop which means I have been painting my little heart out as well as getting calls to go look at other peoples furniture so that I have more projects to work on. I occasionally have the opportunity to “pick” through a barn or a basement here and there, which I absolutely LOVE which is where my latest project was found.

This was one of those projects that I was not planning on blogging about and ended up loving how it was progressing therefore I do not have a before photo of this table. I KNOW! I am sorry. It was your typical brown wood table and the top layer was of poly was peeling away.

Beside doing a quick sand and a wash down to clean off the dirt and grime, I painted the whole thing black. The color is literally called black from Home Depot. Nothing fancy. I of course mixed the black paint with BB Frosch chalk paint powder (which creates chalk paint) and let that dry. I then did one more light thin coat to cover any streaky areas.

I LOVED the way the black looked on the table, so I decided to lightly distress the edges to the let the wood tone underneath show through. This looked so good to me so I decided to something a little more to the table. (This is also where I decided to do a post on this table.)

I found this amazing French Poem Craft Stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils and thought it would look fabulous on the top of this table.

When you order a stencil from Cutting Edge they send you a little stencil brush and roller with your stencil as well as a little free sample stencil. I will show you the freebie stencil a little later.

I placed the stencil on the table where I wanted it and held it in place. I would have normally used a little painters tape to hold it in place but because it was such a small area to work with I just held it in place with my free hand which worked just fine.

I used the foam roller and rolled it in a little but of creamy colored paint. I then rolled the excess paint off the roller on a napkin I had sitting on the side. You want to get the excess paint off or else your paint  will bleed under the stencil and you won’t get nice crisp lines.

I rolled back and forth and up and down in all directions to get really nice coverage.

After the whole stencil was used up, I moved it down to finish the rest of the table top.

There was a place at the bottom and the top of the stencil to match up where you left off so that you can get nice even spacing.

After the whole table top was stenciled, which took a whopping 3 minutes, I washed the stencil off in the tub immediately. There is nothing worse than cleaning dried paint off of stencils in the DIY world. I use warm water and dish soap with a non abrasive scrubby to clean my stencils. Why the tub? Because my sink is not big enough to lay the stencil flat and its so much easier to clean when it is laying flat.

Ok now to the free stencil that came with my French Poem stencil. I got this really cute little Fleur de lis which went perfectly with my French theme and just so happens the small shelf under the table is the perfect spot for this. I followed the same rules as the other stencil to apply this one as well

After both stencils were dry I lightly went over them with a fine grit sanding songe to smooth out and unevenness and distress the letters just a little bit.

I then waxed my whole piece with BB Frosch wax (my favorite furniture wax by the way). I buffed it to a nice sheen and then I called it a day.

For such little time spent on this I can’t believe how crisp and professional this turned out. The key to stenciling is to not use too much paint. That’s it folks.

I can’t wait to see what else I can put a French poem on. I may be in trouble here. The wheels are turning ladies and gents. Luckily it’s just paint and can be painted over when I move onto the next exciting thing that blows my mind

Here are some more projects that I have done with Cutting Edge Stencils. The possibilities are really endless when it comes to stenciling. Have fun and get creative. Until next time!!!! Have a great week!