Design Inspiration. Planet Stencil Library.

stencils and tapestry

Are you looking for yet another use for your stencils?  Here is a gift of an idea. Simply stencil your design in colours onto tapestry canvas and fill in the different areas by stiching them with matching colours of tapestry wool.

  This could make an inexpensive but thoughtful gift for someone creative.

  You could stencil the canvas in colours to suit their home, buy the matching wools and display it all beautifully in a decorated box.  All stencils shown above are found in the budget collection from The Stencil Library. Helen.

How to stencil the great wall of China

No, not that one.  One like this... or this...
There are real plates in theses picture, but I want to show you how to get the look with stencils.
This is the dining room at Stocksfield Hall a few years ago.

  I used stencils from the Blue and White collection at The Stencil Library.

  The designs were used on the walls and again on the floors. The pictures are from The Stencilled Home. The room no longer exists therefore I was unable to photograph detail so... I stencilled some paper to allow a closer look and with a flick of the computer mouse I can give you an alternate colourway proving that blue and white is not the only way to go.
Rachel shared the work of Matthew Meade with you on Design Inspiration earlier this month.  He used many of our blue and white stencils to mimic brown transferware for Country Homes magazine.
I mixed the colours on this piece of scenery for our local theatre group. Katrin Cargill interpreted the stencilled plates for Victoria magazine like this. In the background, she has stencilled palm trees.  Both of the stylists mixed real china with stencilled pattern.  The china stencils all have three overlays which makes them very simple to colour.  The first layer allows the user to stencil the shape of the crockery then the pattern is created with layers two and three.  These stencils would be fun to stencil onto a non fraying canvas such as Roclon to make dinner mats.  They are a handy size for stenciling cushion covers too...and cabinet fronts...and trays.  OK I'll stop now.

Helen
photos: Deidi Von Shaewen for World of Interiors; from Paint Colours by Kevin McCloud; Colin Poole for The Stencilled Home; Helen Norman for Country Homes (US); David Montgomery for Victoria; all others by The Stencil Library.

Who or what influenced who or what?

Yesterday, I was leafing through the March issue of Elle magazine (the US edition) and came across this ad for Missoni:

Now a couple of years ago, we were designing our Big and Bold range of stencils.  We were stencilling roomsets to show off how these decorating masks worked.  By using the decorating mask system, you can create patterns that you couldn't with a traditional stencil.  The Chevron is a perfect example of this.  When Chips created this roomset using DM4 Chevron No. 2, I remarked, "How very Missoni!".  To which Chips replied, "If you say so".  That implies that he is not very sartorially minded, but I assure you...despite his current favoured uniform of huge sweater, denim shirt and jeans, he knows his Versace from his Chanel (a good designer is well versed in all the creative arts).  But I also have a 1930's knitted tea cosy that looks as though it walked straight off of the Missoni catwalk so what subconsciously inspired his scheme is a mystery.  If you think that you cannot gain inspiration from something as utilitarian as a knitted tea cosy, think again.  Here is the photo said tea cosy (masquerading as a cushion on my armchair at the moment).

It's quite something, is it not?  Finally, here is the roomset featuring the Chevron Decorating Mask.

 

I would like to think that Missoni's current collection was inspired by our photograph (being arrogant enough to think that anyone at Missoni had actually seen our photo).  Given that Missoni might have subtly inspired it in the first place, that has a nice sort of symmetry to it, don't you think?  However, I suspect the tea cosy might have had more to do with it.  If unusual objects have inspired any decorating schemes of yours, please leave a comment.  We'd love to hear what sparks an idea.

Rachel

A look to dye for

  This is the interior of The Style Club hair salon in Dublin.

At first glance I thought it had been decorated with Stencil Library stencils, but on further inspection I read that the surfaces have been screen printed.  A similar look could be achieved with our stencils and an adventurous eye for colour.

Should you fancy giving the same treatment to your abode, look at our Brushstroke stencil.  It is a repeating design found in our Modern Design section and is similar to the design shown on the floor of the salon.  I like the way that they resemble hair clippings.  

The ceiling pattern has a likeness to our MD3 giraffe in the extra large size.  The plaid looking wall is a little fuzzy to see the exact design, but one could use the tartan stencil in our Online Exclusives collection to get a similar effect.  I enjoyed seeing the rest of the salon through all the convex mirrors on the stripey wall.

The photographer is uncredited but I got the pictures from Designer magazine.  The designers were Douglas Wallace.  I think it is vibrant and exciting, what do you think?

Helen 

Kate Moss and the Splatter overalls

My goodness, Kate Moss was not top of The Tatler Magazine's best dressed list this year.  What?  She has been the UK's most consistent fashion icon since Princess Diana. 

This picture was taken long before Kate was toppled from her throne.  I took the page from a well thumbed copy of Vogue Magazine, which in turn was featuring pages from earlier issues and I can find no credits to accompany the picture.  I like to fantasise that Kate was wearing a copy of the painters overalls that have been featured on our web site for the past ten years. 

These handy cotton overalls come in various sizes.  You can buy them plain  or you can commisssion us to splatter them in the colours of your choice.  So Kate, follow the link, get a new set of overalls and get back on top of the best dressed list!!!

Helen

A garden in your home

Whilst browsing my back copies of  World of Interiors magazine, I found this decoupage wallpaper from the 1930's.

We have made large size decoupage papers at The Stencil Library, but not on this scale. I think it's quite fab.  The idea is that you bought the different elements for your garden room and they arrived ready cut from paper. They were then pasted to your wall.  If you were clever in applying and overlaying your plants, butterflies and the like, your room could look something like this.

Of course you know I am going to tell you that you can achieve a similar look with stencils.   We have a large collection of plants, flowers and garden architecture in our Garden Room range of stencils.  The narrow photograph shows a detail from the pages of the June 2008 issue of Easy Living magazine.  The page was created by Sophie Martell and the photography is by Graham Atkins-Hughes.  They show hollyhocks, lupins and foxgloves from the our collection.  Sophie has chosen spring-like, ice-cream colours for her interpretation of a garden room unlike the colour drenched printing of the John Line wall paper.  I am loving that crockery from Albert Hall (on the tray).   It will be on my wish list.  We do a lovely decoupage pack of teacups which would complement that cushion rather well.  Here is the complete page from the magazine:   

Click on the picture to see detail or better still buy the magazine. It has a lot of good stuff this month.

My friend Michelle wanted a Garden niche creating in her French farmhouse some years ago.  So we had a Stencil Library trip and stencilled the entire house.  My Mum and Sabina stencilled this nook for her.

My own bedroom has a bit of a Garden Room vibe going on. I will save photos of the full room for a 'Tour our House' post but here is a preview.   Helen.

Framing the ancestors

I found this image in the World Of Interiors magazine.  It was photographed by the homeowner Rene Stoeltie.  The Stoelties have written many lovely books on interiors.  Although I could find nothing in the text to explain the portrait in this shot it appears to be pasted to the wall with a frame hand painted around it.

Which is just what you would do with our Print Room Swag stencil. The frames are stencilled onto the walls and the portraits (photocopies not originals!!!!) are cut to fit them. Nifty huh?  Helen.

Vera Wang's fab frock

Regular readers and friends will know that Rachel and I love to stencil our clothes.  I was overjoyed to see that Vera Wang may have been flourishing a stencil brush on this fab frock.  It is featured in her advert for Princess Perfume. Stencilling clothes is both satisfying and easy. If Vera's dress does nor suit your shape or budget, you could stencil your own creation. For a similar look try one of our swags and stencil it with Liquitex acrylic in Titanium White .  I just looked through our catalogue and would probably choose NC115, a versatile pearl border.  We even have a nifty skull and crossbone stencil should you have the hat to decorate.  The tassels on Vera's stencil are fairly similar to a design I bought many years ago for my FIRST ever stencilled clothing project. I used the tassel with the rope from TP18. Here I am wearing it sometime in the late 1980's. I was going to my friend Sylvia's wedding.  I still have the jacket! Helen

PS. I still have the hat too.