How Do I Stencil a Quote on My Wall?
Throw some ideas at your walls and then find out how they stick. Better yet, stencil these words right on the wall for art-you-can-ponder over the dining room table or the sofa. Stencils enable you to personalize a room and create an uplifting or thoughtful vibe. Add rock lyrics in neon paint to your media room; run a Shakespeare sonnet down the hallway in plain glaze over level paint; experiment with paint applications for grunge or shabby chic-style consequences.
Sweet Debate
Send the played-out tiny individuals in your family off to dreamland with the immortal words of Calvin & Hobbes: “If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can play together all night .” Sponge a quotation into a stencil you make yourself or possess made-to-order. On a light lilac or turtle wall in the nursery, lightly dab rose-colored paint using a natural sea sponge. Aim for a somewhat patchy and broken band of words; practice getting just enough paint to the sponge and applying very light pressure on a bit of cardboard for the hang of it before handling the wall. A quotation over the headboard or over a crib is permanent room decor which puts a sweet tone in the bedroom. Paint the back of a door with chalkboard paint so the very small poet can add her own quotable thoughts to the room as she grows.
Word Play
Get your graffiti on from the playroom with inspirational wall quotes and one-word admonitions to support enthusiasm and reflection. “Imagine!” Is always a fantastic reminder; when you surround the letters using stenciled birds and butterflies, the message is hard to miss. “Be awesome” becomes a mountain of a concept to climb, figuratively, if you organize the letters in a walkway using a large “B” at the top, “AWE” in the middle, and “SOME” in the base. Stencil your favorite saved quotation from each kid somewhere on a wall inside the room, with the attribution stenciled in small type right under it. For an older children’s rec room, let the children pick their favorite quotes and enable you to stencil them over the shelves or cubbies that support each child’s toys or games.
Language Lesson
No rule says you have to cover the walls using quotes from your native language. Stretch everybody’s language abilities a bit using a fragment of poetry in French or a line from a opera in Italian. Quote Rilke in English and his first German over the bathroom mirror. “You must change your life,” is a very clear wake-up call in the daytime. Your oyster-white wall over the tobacco leather sofa will likely be forever transformed using a delicate gray: “Il n’y a qu’un bonheur dans la vie, c’est d’aimer et d’etre aime,” or, “There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved” — out of George Sand. Stencil in rust on the palest chartreuse kitchen wall: “Cucinare e una forma d’amore” — “Cooking is love made visible .”
A Wall of Words
Borrow the lyrics from your favorite song or a comprehensive passage from the favorite author to cover an whole wall. Vary the size of their letters to emphasize keywords and provide graphic variety. A Kahlil Gibran quotation in the dining room — “Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall start to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance” — is not overpowering when stenciled in medium maize cemented above a level light maize wall. The glow on the glaze both clarifies and obscures the words, depending on the light. Selecting keywords, such as, “quiet,” “sing,” “climb,” “dance,” subtly focuses attention to the significance of the quotation. Pick simple fonts rather than elaborate typography, therefore the quotes can be read in a glance.