How to Stencil Using a Roller with Liquid Paint

There are many techniques you can use to paint with your new stencils but one of the easiest is to use a roller brush and either latex house paint or acrylic craft paint. If you have bought a stencil kit from My Wonderful Walls, we do sell acrylic paint kits with all the colors you need to paint your wall mural as shown. But you can also purchase these paints at most craft or big box stores. Here is a step by step guide to stenciling with a roller brush. 

Materials Needed: 

1. High Density Foam Roller Brushes (you may need many sizes depending on what stencils you are using)
2. Acrylic Craft Paint or Latex House Paint (For indoor projects)
3. Flat Palette Tray, Old Cookie Sheet or Paper Plates
4. Palette Knife or Spatula
5.  Brush for Shading/Details
6. Stencils

How to Stencil with a Roller Brush: 

1. Start with a clean, dry surface. My Wonderful Walls stencils are self-adhesive so you can just stick them to your walls, furniture or wherever you are stenciling.
2. Pour a few spoonfuls of paint onto your flat palette tray or paper plate.
3. Using a palette knife or spatula, draw a long wide streak of paint from the spoonfuls. You’ll want it to be shallow.
4. Roll your roller brush in the steak until the entire roller is covered with paint. Work it back and forth so your paint will be distributed evenly.
5. Draw the roller back and forth over the stencil openings, pressing lightly at first. You can press more firmly as some of the paint is used up. Try to keep the brush as flat as possible.
6. Build up the color slowly with more passes of the brush. If you are worried about making it too dark, lift up the corner of the stencil to check. When you are satisfied, you can gently lift the stencil away and let your paint dry. HINT: You can use a hair dryer to speed this process up.
7. If you want to blend a second color into an interior portion of the stencil use the tip of the roller only being careful not to tear the foam. You can also add shading with a brush.
8. HINT: When not using the roller, keep it in a ziploc bag to prevent drying out. This is especially true when using latex paint. If you still need to moisten the foam, you can roll it over a damp kitchen sponge or spritz it with a little water. Don’t let it get too wet or you will have bleeding with your paint.

This is just a basic overview of painting with a roller brush. When you purchase My Wonderful Wall stencils you will receive a lot of helpful hints and project ideas with your stencils and you can always check out our photo reviews and blog for ideas. If you have any helpful hints for using a roller brush to stencil feel free to leave them in the comments!