The Art of Stenciling

Written by Leslie Criss | Photographed by Joe Worthem

When Megan Patton and her family moved into the historic Creekmore House in Water Valley two years ago this month, it seemed a perfect fit for the artist, her musician husband Matt and two daughters.

After all, the 3,536-square-foot, multiple-storied house was the childhood home of Hiram Hubert Creekmore, built in 1900 by Creekmore’s father. Though he gained notoriety as a poet, Creekmore was a Renaissance man, to be sure. He was a novelist, editor, publisher, pianist, composer and gardener.

Patton grew up in Oxford, graduated with an art degree from Ole Miss and these days is an art teacher at Lafayette Middle School. She met her husband in 2007 at Ajax Grill, when he was playing with a local band.

Soon after, she bought a house on Panola Street in Water Valley that just happened to be in shouting distance of the Creekmore House. The day after, she and Matt had their first date.

“I had loved the house for a long time,” she said. “And we were settled in when I heard the Creekmore House was on the market. I jokingly said to Matt, ‘Hey, let’s buy the Creekmore House.’ His response was, ‘We can talk about it.’”

The previous owner had left the house in good condition, but the Pattons made a few improvements upon moving in.

“We put on a new roof and had to have the boiler in the basement repaired,” Patton said. “I wasn’t even sure what a boiler was, but we have one, and it works.”

With her artist’s eyes and creative spirit, Patton saw things she wanted to do in the family’s new digs. With penchant for wallpaper, she quickly learned how much time — and expense — wallpapering would take.

“I love wallpaper,” she said. “But when I started checking and learned it would cost $3,000 to wallpaper one room, I gave up on that idea. But then I heard about stenciling. I googled and read more about it. It seemed like something I could do.”

For those not in the know, stenciling is a technique for reproducing designs by passing ink or paint through cut-out shapes. And it has quite a history. Stencil use has been around for 35,000 years, the earliest examples found in Paleolithic cave paintings in Asia and Europe where people blew pigments over their hands to create images.

Stenciling was a part of artistic culture in China, Japan, medieval Europe, and became popular during the art deco era of the 1920s and ’30s. More recently, stencils have been used in graffiti art, like works by Banksy.

A longtime painter, Patton decided to try to stencil on the walls in the rooms of her house. She researched and read the how-tos, chose and ordered the stencils and picked out her paint colors, which Patton said is the hardest part.

She finished a bedroom in two weeks.

“Early on, I messed up the stencils and had to reorder,” she said.

The tools of stenciling are few and relatively simple — the stencil, the paint and a stencil brush. One important tip Patton will pass along: Clean paint buildup on the stencil brush.

On a tour of the stenciled rooms, she offered an admission in the main bedroom, stenciled in pink, Patton’s favorite color.

“I am a perfectionist,” she said. “I can show you a spot in here where I messed up, and it drives me crazy.”

Even when pointed out, it was not noticeable.

A room upstairs, to be the guest room, is stenciled using four paint colors, and Patton has stenciled above the chair rail in the kitchen in three colors — two shades of blue and a green.

Though every stenciled wall is impressive, perhaps the masterpiece is the foyer, which not only has lots of wall space, but very high ceilings. And Patton is afraid of heights.

“I had to borrow a very tall ladder from a neighbor,” she said.

Did the stenciling process calm her fears?

“Not at all,” she said, laughing. “I was just praying the whole time I wouldn’t fall.”

Stenciling is not Patton’s first foray into a self-taught art medium. In 2008, she started quilting. She picked up a book, “Quilting for Dummies,” and commenced to hand quilting.

“My grandmother was a quilter,” Patton said. “And I hated to see that end with her.”

Patton likely will not give up on her stenciling projects. There are many more rooms in her family’s home, and she’s done a room in her sister’s Memphis home.

“I enjoy doing it,” she said. “It takes patience, but I have patience — I teach school.”