Easy pattern stenciling tutorial- DIY

I wanted to share with you guys an easy way I found to stencil a pattern on a table top or dresser top.  I'm certain that I'm not the first to discover this technique, but it made my process so much easier, I had to share:-)

Materials needed:

• A painted piece of furniture, of course! In my case I used a bombe chest that I picked up at a thrift store and painted in Annie Sloan "Old White"
• stencil of your choice- I went with a small damask stencil, I purchased at Michaels craft store
• Painters tape
• Thread
• Scissors
• Tape measure

Step 1: I started out by placing the stencil in the lower right hand corner, measuring the height of the stencil, and cutting a piece of thread to run across (taping it on each side to hold it in place.

Materials needed and first row taped!

Step 2: I then measured the same height of the stencil in the next row and cut/taped another piece of thread lengthwise across the nightstand.

Step 3:After I taped the thread from right to left, I measured and taped the thread from top to bottom the same way:

Once you measure the width of the stencil, set your tape measure to hold in that position, and it makes it much easier to measure the other boxes to make sure your thread is straight the entire way!

You'll end up with something that looks like this:

If you want to stencil a straight block pattern, you can start stenciling at this point, but I wanted to offset each row into a continuous pattern.

Step 4: So, I removed the stencil from the lower right corner, and placed it in the second row, centering the thread through the middle of the stencil.
I then placed a very small piece of tape at the intersection of the threads to hold it in place, and snipped the middle of the thread so I wasn't left with a "thread line" when I stenciled this spot:

I placed a small piece of tape just over the top and bottom of the stencil to mark the spot where I would place it

 Step 5: On every other row, repeat this step, and you'll end up with something that looks like this:

Step 6: Start painting your stencils! I use a small piece of painters tape to hold my stencil in place each time I move it, and a round stencil brush to dab the paint on.  As you can see, I've used this stencil many times, and have cut it in an odd shape (it was previously part of another stencil), so you have to be cautious not to let your brush fray over the edge.

I stenciled the top in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint "Graphite" and finished it off with some distressing, the hardware with a silver leafing liquid, and two coats of a satin polyurethane.

Here's the finished product:

 This piece is also still available in my Etsy shop, at 10% off with this coupon code for my blog readers and facebook followers: "ALCHEMY2013"
Click here to see it on Etsy:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/171370069/chic-black-and-white-damask-bombe-chest?ref=shop_home_feat