Stenciling with Plaster - A Little Table

This past week I finished this little side table, here it is shown before,

in my version of this year’s Pantone color – Radiant Orchid.

I mixed these 2 American Paint Company colors;

BORDELLO

SHINING SEAS

to get to my purple #1 (deli container on right)

and these 2 American Paint Company colors;

FIREWORKS RED

BORN ON THE FOURTH

to get to my darker purple #2 (deli container on left).

This sounds goofy but it’s the truth, I had a thought, middle of the right, to stencil every inch of this table, in a raised design, and then paint it and reveal. I decided on the purple because I like to show fun colors, but not necessarily on an heirloom buffet, this size table was perfect for a bold color.

Stenciling came first. When I want to stencil with heaviest relief, I use Texturline’s Sandstone – it’s a dense stone plaster that performs, and dries quick too. I used several stencil designs – ones that were small enough to easily hold in one hand while I bladed plaster with the other.

I went around the sides with a tile stencil

and ran down all four sides of each leg using a narrow diamond shaped design.

I didn’t use stencil adhesive, but you could if you wanted more control.

When the plaster was dry I lightly sanded it with a 180 grit, and then painted everything the darker purple EXCEPT the legs, the first layer of the legs was the lighter purple. Once dry, I started to paint the second coat with the lighter purple onto the dark portions (see front drawer area) and at this point I realized that I liked the flow of the piece more on the front (everything same color) , as opposed to part light, part dark.

So I decided to paint the WHOLE thing the lighter purple color,

then gave it a quick sanding back to the raised stencil.

After I lightly sanded I sealed it with American Paint Company’s Clear Wax.

At this point I hit a bump. If you look closely you can see some light white looking dots popping through the painted top (bottom right)

I didn’t like those. The whole top had more color, and these ‘white spots’ looked like an error. (I’m sure they were part of the original table)

To remedy, once the wax was all brushed on, I wiped it back best I could, then got out a 150 grit sand paper and sanded the top, turning it weathered , thus hiding the white dots.

When the wax was dry I gave it a nice buff, using the power drill brush attachment. If you don’t have one of these, it’s time to order one – they save a lot of time, a quick and easy way to pop a nice wax sheen.

I swapped the old knobs for new.

The legs are my absolute favorite part.

This is doable, peeps! Though it took some time to complete the stenciling, it was easy enough to do. Smaller stencils (12 inches or less) will make it easier, and for certain have at LEAST 7 mil thickness – thin, whimpy stencils will make this project way more frustrating than it needs to be.