Super Simple Stencil Project

This super simple stencil project is using a little old wooden box to create a salt and pepper and napkin caddy for the kitchen island:

I found this old wood caddy box at a tag sale online and picked it up for just a couple bucks. It was easy to re-paint with left-over paints from past projects.Here’s the lovely Scandinavian Mosaic Tile Stencil:

I only needed the smaller pattern for my project, therefore, I taped off the adjoining edges so that while I stenciled it, the tape protected the paint from getting into the adjoining patterns onto the box as well.

Here’s the box all painted and ready for stenciling, (except the black handle which I painted last… when the black paint was out for the stencil). Here is a shopping link for several different colors of paint perfect for a project like this. Good to have them on hand!

For the actual stenciling, I dug out my old sponge stencil pad and some paper towel folded up for a blotter. (the sponge pad was so old that by the end of the this project it fell apart… When I tried to rinse it out, it literally disintegrated. Glad it got through the project okay though. LOL)

I simply dabbed the sponge into the paint, then blotted it onto the paper towel to remove any excess paint.Holding the stencil flat on the box side, I pounced the sponge onto the surface.

I didn’t like the bold look of the paint, so I let it dry for a couple minutes then went over it with a damp, clean paper towel to wipe off some of the stenciled paint. In the picture below, you can see on the left is where I wiped it off, and on the right is where I’m still letting the paint dry a few minutes before wiping. I wanted a worn look, so I actually sanded the box and revealed the wood in a few places.

On the two ends of the box, I decided to sketch out the words ‘napkins’ and ‘salt and pepper’. I went over the pencil sketch with a black paint marker like this one. (click for shopping link)

Here is the caddy all finished. This truly was a super simple stencil project. Perfect size for anyone not having a lot of experience stenciling, and just wants to try it out.

The caddy has turned out to be very convenient for holding the napkins, salt and pepper. I love it when a project makes something more useful and looks better to boot!If you liked this DIY project I did, HERE you can see many more large and small projects I've done!