Painting an Old Window Using a Stencil

ORIGINAL POST DATE: April 26, 2016

I saw a Craigslist post for free old windows left by the side of dumpster and you've never seen me move faster, with an infant no less! Jack was like "seriously woman, what the frick is going on?" We hopped into my tiny Honda Fit and hauled ass to this dumpster in Ventura. The good thing was there were still a few left when we got there, the bad thing was I could only fit one into my car. I looked around Pintrest for some fun projects but they were all too busy looking and I couldn't just find just a normal how to paint a window article. So I had to do some experimenting...

I headed to Michaels and looked for a stencil. Originally I thought I wanted to do some tree branches with some cute little birdies ("Put a Bird on it!") but I found this dandelion stencil that I loved so I scrapped the cute little birdies. I didn't really want to  buy a stencil brush because they were pricey and I was trying to keep this project cheap. So I bought some $0.49 sponge brushes and $0.89 white acrylic paint and headed home to experiment. My mom went through a stenciling phase in the 80's (as well as a perming stage, but I mean who didn't) so I tried to recall her technique. I remember her doing a lot of dabbing while pressing down the stencil, so that's what I did. I used painters tape to secure the stencil and started dabbing away and it was a f@&king nightmare. The paint ran everywhere and it looked like a seagull pooped all over my cute shabby chic window. Thankfully you can wash away acrylic paint.

Second Try. This time I decided to use spray paint, I also did a better job of taping down the stencil, which I cut a bit so it wasn't bulging on the window separator thingys. I used the same spray paint I used for my fireplace cover, Rust-Oleum spray paint. I taped down newspaper around the stencil in case any of the spray paint wandered. I did one fine coat, careful to use quick sweeping motions. I let that dry for a few minutes and did one more light coat. After letting the second coat dry it was the moment of truth. I removed the stencil and it freakin worked. Thank goodness, I probably could have scraped the spray paint off but that would have been such a pain. Now that I had a method, I cut up the little dandelion petals so I could make the design look like they were blowing in the wind. I wish I would've taken more pictures of the process. By the time I thought of it, there was only the aftermath to photograph. The spray paint dried very quickly and I was able to just use my nail to scrap away rouge paint.

I'm really happy with the result. A lot of the pinterest projects looked too busy with hooks and ribbons and trinkets. I like the simplicity of just the paint on the window. Bonus: I did not have to buy a special stenciling brush or stencil tacky spray. This project ended up costing me only about $15.