Category: DIY Projects with Paint

A few months ago I was sitting in my in-laws’ home in Chennai, India and kept staring at a big blank wall just inside the main entrance of their flat. It’s visible from the entire living room/dining/kitchen area. And I imagined, what if? What if it was a bold color? What if it had a design on it? Wouldn’t it make the place feel different? It would  welcome people as they stepped in. It would embrace people with color. But no one we know does things like this to their walls there.

But now they have this wall:

I chose deep red to coordinate with the textiles found around the room.

Painting supplies from the U.S. were already stashed there, waiting for when they’re needed to decorate our own apartment. And I know my way around Asian Paints locations near T Nagar neighborhood in Chennai very well! Better than anyone who lives near Chicago should know about paint sources in Chennai! Because when I wasn’t looking, I somehow turned into a painting addict.

That’s why I got the itch while sitting in a chair. Staring at a blank wall. In India.

It so happened my father-in-law said he’d like birds on the wall. And I knew that Asian Paints has a stencil with branches, foliage and birds (they call stencils “wall fashions”). So we visited our local friendly Asian Paints dealer, who is within walking distance down dusty Usman Road:

Yes, this the dealer of my painting drug when we’re in Chennai! Don’t be fooled by appearances. If you haven’t been to India, a lot of places are not like our Home Depots, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have good stuff. They can mix anything you want here. Even rich gold shiny metallic paints! I have some. They said that only designers buy that kind of paint. My husband assured them that I’d know what to do with the shiny gold metallic paint. People aren’t really into DIY there. Labor is affordable so you pay people to do many laborious things. Except, what if you enjoy doing these things?

It was a spectacle for awhile. Relatives stopped by.  My husband’s cousins. Many cousins dropped by, curious to see this painting going on.

If that tube light is bright for you in the photo, imagine your eyes up next to it!

That wooden bench is said to be about 100 years old and belonged to my husband’s grandpa. Apparently the bench had a beautiful old worn wood patina. But they wanted it to look new so they painted it “new brown wood” color. We joked that we’ll strip the paint off of it on the next trip. Okay maybe we are serious about that …

Sometimes I had to improvise because supplies aren’t available like they are in the U.S. So a Q-tip (AKA earbud) became a touch-up brush. It worked fine. I didn’t have a stencil brush or sea sponge, so I used edges of paint rollers to “pounce” paint color onto the stencils. The only paper towels I had were from a roll brought from the U.S.

The best thing was seeing the pride in my father- and mother-in-law over their new wall! Smiles all around! They even sent roses to our Bangalore hotel (we had to move on to our next city the next day) because they were so happy about the wall.

I’m starting to think it can be even better to paint for other people, than to paint only for myself.

When I see Royal Design Studio’s Indian stencils, I see a sari! The patterns of India’s saris are so gorgeous, I could drape all the walls and windows in my house with them, and live inside a silken sari tent. But I don’t do such craziness because I live with a guy, and he wouldn’t be happy living in a tent made of women’s clothing. He’s already told me that his male business associates who stay in our guest room sometimes might feel funny sleeping under a sari bedspread.

So instead, I indulged in lust for sari patterns by painting sari-inspired art with Indian stencils:

I used the doors removed from the closet I recently turned into an exotic sitting nook! So this art panel is big — 7 feet tall and 3 feet wide. But you can do this on canvas, directly on a wall, on furniture. I think this would be fantastic painted on screens to divide a room or make a big decorative accent in a room!

To get all details on how to paint this, visit PaintandPattern.com to see my tutorial post. There I show how to lay out the stencils to get the backgrounds and patterns lined up just right.

Paint looks like sari silk

To get this look, I recommend using Royal Design Studio Stencil Cremes. They have a shimmer that’s just like silk! To create a silken look, as you can see in the photo above, I created vertical “strie” lines by drawing the paint brush down in long continuous vertical strokes. Yeah my arm got tired, and five-foot tall me had to stand on a step stool, but don’t lift that brush off the panel! Keep making long unbroken vertical strokes the entire length of each background color. This way, the stencil creme looks like the threads of silk. So cool! I didn’t expect that when I started painting, but was thrilled when I saw it happening.

And would you believe, there are only three colors of paint used here? It’s true! I used Peacock Fancy, Patina Green and Smoked Oyster stencil cremes. Often the patterns of saris are woven with only a few colors. You just switch the colors of backgrounds and foregrounds/patterns to make it look like there are more colors. Here is my “formula” for choosing stencils and paints to make a sari panel:

Choose the darkest of your three paint colors for “Color #1.” This will be the background color at the bottom of the panel, and will visually “ground” your sari panel. Then choose a medium and a light color for Colors #2 and #3. Make sure you have strong contrast between the colors so your stenciled patterns will show up well. I think it looks more like a sari if one of the paint colors is a metallic like a gold or a silver.

India-inspired patterns

Can I take a moment to rave about the Annapakshi Damask Stencil? It’s the pattern at the top of the sari panel:

I especially love the Annapakshi motif because it’s a South Indian motif often used on Kanchipuram (or Kanjivaram, spelled different ways) silk saris that are hand-woven in a village by the same name in South India. These saris can be woven with real gold and are very fine. They’re often worn by brides and for very special occasions. Here’s an example:

Hmmm, can you see my color palette was probably influenced here?

The Annapakshi, as explained by Sarangi, a Kanjivaram sari shop in Chennai that often uses this motif in its designs, is a mythical swan bird. You can find it carved into the columns of ancient temples in India. Today it’s often used in brass lamps that are lighted for important events. It’s auspicious to light a lamp with an Annapakshi which symbolizes purity:

And the motif is often woven into South Indian saris like this one from Sarangi:

They do look sort of like peacocks, but they are not peacocks. They are said to be white birds like swans, and they can separate milk from water when they drink, so that they drink only the purity of white milk.

I will definitely be on the hunt for brass Annapakshi lanterns on a future India trip. In the meantime, I was happy to paint with the Annapakshi stencil!