How to Stencil on a Wood Cabinet Door

Stenciling a wood cabinet door can add a lot of life to old, tired cabinets. After you have seen the same type of cabinet door for several years, it's nice to add a little color, character and even life to the old doors. Instead of the expensive route of changing out the entire cabinets, you can do the same thing by simply stenciling them.

Using stencils is not a hard project. You can purchase many different stencils from home centers, or at online craft websites. You can also make your own stencils out of cardboard, card stock or even paper. With a few easy to follow steps you can stencil your cabinet door quickly and easily.

What You Will Need:

• Stencils
• Tracing Paper
• Card Stock
• Utility Knife
• Blue Painter's Tape
• 180 Grit Sand Paper
• Spray Adhesive
• Drop Cloths
• Paint

Step 1 - Purchase Stencils

There's a wide variety of stencils that you can purchase, ranging from simple letters, to designs or entire sceneries. With the right combination of colors, your stenciling can transform your cabinet doors into a breathtaking mural.

Step 2 - Make Your Own Stencils

If you don't want to purchase your stencils, want to save money or for some reason can't find the design you want, you can always make your own. Find a picture or design that you like online and print it out. Otherewise, you can always customize it and draw your design onto tracing paper. Whichever way you want to do it, transfer the design to some card stock. This is a little less flexible than paper and can withstand all the paint and repeated repositioning. With a utility knife, cut out the part that you want to paint onto the cabinet door.

Step 3 - Sand Cabinet Door Surface

Using some very light grit sand paper, you should give an easy scuffing of the door. Simply wrap the sand paper around a block of wood and make one of two swipes of the area you will be stenciling. This gives the adhesive, and the paint, something to grip onto.

Step 4 - Spray Back of Stencil

Lay the stencil on some newspapers, or a drop cloth with the back facing up. Spray lightly with some spray adhesive. Hold the can about 10 inches away from the stencil and give one burst of spray.

Step 5 - Position Stencil on Cabinet Door

Once the adhesive is on the stencil, position it on the door. Make sure it's where you want it and secure it with the blue painter's tape. This tape is excellent, as it will not peel off any other paint that's on the door when you take it off.

Step 6 - Paint Door

There are two types of paint that are best for stenciling. The first is a paste-like paint that comes in small tubes or containers. You dab at it with a flat edged brush and dab on the cabinet door. The other way is with spray paint.

Step 7 - Take off Stencil and Enjoy

Once you've painted the area, remove the stencil and admire your work. You can then reposition the stencil on another area and repeat the painting process until you're done.