AROUND HOME : Stenciling

SUDDENLY POPULAR after nearly a century of neglect, stencil painting now decorates nursery walls and furniture, living and dining room walls and floors. Stenciling became prominent in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, when it was used to imitate wallpaper. In the American colonies, stenciled designs were used on floors, on furniture and on canvas or oilcloth floor coverings.

The process is simple: A stenciler, using a craft knife, cuts various shapes in a piece of sturdy, usually waxed, paper, and then applies paint to a surface through those cutouts. The beauty of stenciling is the ease of repetition: Complicated swag-and-bouquet borders can be applied to walls in a fraction of the time (and without the requisite talent) it would take someone to paint them by hand. Stenciling can be a very satisfying craft, because the end result, when done well, looks professionally neat and precise.

Although stenciling is easy enough to attempt on your own--with just some paper, a craft knife, paint and brushes--a small test project before launching into a total-room experience is a good idea. The hardest thing to master is the correct consistency of the paint. Think dry. And the stencil brush (shaped like a blunt, long-handled shaving brush) should be wielded with an up-and-down motion; wiping brings disaster. The surface to be stenciled determines the consistency of the paint; cloth can take more paint on the brush, but a floor previously painted with something like diamond-hard deck enamel will resist all paint.

Many how-to books on stenciling have been published; Dover Books has issued a series of books of stencil designs on thick paper, ready for cutting. Stenciling supplies and classes are offered at Judy’s Carousel Crafts and Rainbow Craft, both in Burbank, and at Craf-T-Mac’s in La Habra. Supplies are available at Aaron Bros. stores, Kit Kraft in Studio City, Stat’s in Pasadena, and Michael’s in Torrance. UCLA Extension plans to offer a stenciling class in the spring quarter.