Early American Stenciling

You just arrived on the east coast in the “new world” after sailing for 3 months. You start cutting down trees and sawing them into boards to build your house. The walls will probably be wood unless you mix up some lime plaster, and hopefully you know how to make paint!

The colonist didn’t have the luxury’s we do when it comes to home decorating. History tells us that in the day, (late 1700s-1800s) stenciling was done to imitate wallpaper. Often the woman of the house would stencil the walls with familiar patterns from the wallpapers that were a part of normal life prior to coming to America. It might be a border or above the wainscot and would eventually be done to floors, floor cloths, furniture, trays, boxes and such. Early stencils themselves were made of heavy oiled paper or leather. Some out of tin. It wasn’t long and most stenciling was done by professional painters. They would travel the countryside offering there services!

The stencil was much cheaper than that imported wallpaper. You could choose your colors, which back in that era were usually bold and bright. It would also be custom design, which we as decorative painters still like to proudly say!

Some of the early murals by the more famous stencilers were actually done also using many stencils to “build” there wall paintings. Not much has changed really in this art except now we can go to the store and buy paint instead of mixing it in the barn, we can order the stencil on-line, made of mylar, instead of using heavy papers (some of us still do that) and like everything else in our time, you can Do It Yourself, but there is still the need for the professional!

Designs are still some of the old classics, some new, some even still copying wallpaper, but with all our available products, modellos, plaster types, metallic paints, (although these did exist back then), embedded, embossed, the only thing limiting stenciling in the 21 st century is your own imagination!


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			Early American Stenciling
			You just arrived on the east coast in the “new world” after sailing for 3 months. You start cutting down trees and sawing them into boards to build your house. The walls will probably be wood unless you mix up some lime plaster, and hopefully you know how to make paint! The colonist didn’t have the luxury’s we do when it comes to home decorating. History tells us that in the day, (late 1700s-1800s) stenciling was done to imitate wallpaper. Often the woman of the house would stencil the walls with familiar patterns from the wallpapers that were a part of normal life prior to coming to America. It might be a border or above the wainscot and would eventually be done to floors, floor cloths, furniture, trays, boxes and such. Early stencils themselves were made of heavy oiled paper or leather. Some out of tin. It wasn’t long and most stenciling was done by professional painters. They would travel the countryside offering there services! The stencil was much cheaper than that imported wallpaper. You could choose your colors, which back in that era were usually bold and bright. It would also be custom design, which we as decorative painters still like to proudly say! Some of the early murals by the more famous stencilers were actually done also using many stencils to “build” there wall paintings. Not much has changed really in this art except now we can go to the store and buy paint instead of mixing it in the barn, we can order the stencil on-line, made of mylar, instead of using heavy papers (some of us still do that) and like everything else in our time, you can Do It Yourself, but there is still the need for the professional! Designs are still some of the old classics, some new, some even still copying wallpaper, but with all our available products, modellos, plaster types, metallic paints, (although these did exist back then), embedded, embossed, the only thing limiting stenciling in the 21 st century is your own imagination!

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