Hi, I've been busy lately, sorry! We're in a mad rush to get this house finished and presentable for the Holidays. After four years, well - it's time to stop spending every weekend on the house and do something else.
I have a wall in the stairway that the drywall is sort of rough on. It's my fault, I'm not a professional. Anyway, I really need to hide some of the roughness and so I'll be doing a stenciled plaster treatment on that wall to match my dining room ceiling. Here's the ceiling in the top left. I was shooting for a tarnished copper look with the paint colors. I didn't get that, but in real life, it's not boring.
So I just thought I'd outline my process for plaster stencil, since I worked it out myself and it seems to be a valid method. I make my stencil from the material that you buy to use in lining shelves with. It's about 1/8 inch thick, like foam rubber. The advantage of this material is that you can wring it out and wash it like a wash cloth when it gets full of plaster - keeping your stencil clean is important.
To make my cutout, I got a ceiling tile picture from the internet, put it into photoshop and reduced the grays to outlines. I sized it to my ceiling tile size which is 12 inches square - printed it, put it on top of my stencil (shelving liner) And Cut Out The Stencil. That's the finished stencil next to the original image.
So, you have to water your plaster down some for this, if you're using one of those buckets you can get from one of those "Home Stores". I like it to be the consistency of cheap peanut butter.
The process is easy, might take you a few to get the hang of it. Position the stencil with your left hand and with your right hand holding the trowel full of plaster, start by pressing the plaster against the top of the stencil, and draw your hand down LIGHTLY pressing the plaster into the stencil. At this point you can stop holding on to the stencil, the plaster's got it stuck to the wall.
You need to go over it a few times, to make sure everything's filled in. Here's another picture, with the stencil stuck to the wall. You can see here how it needs a few more passes so it can be filled in.
Anyway, I don't have it painted yet. I"ll see if I can update this page when it's painted. Hoping it turns out!
