How to Paint Shapes on Walls With Utensils

Get out kitchen utensils and examine them as though you were looking for rubber stamps. A potato masher, garlic press, pancake turner and even a fork are likely candidates for what is essentially a stamping project. If your own supply of utensils seems uninspired, check out garage sales and rummage sales for old, interesting shapes. You might find butter stamps, cookie cutters or even the gears and wheels of an old meat-grinder or apple-peeler to add to your stamping collection.

Lay out practice paper on a flat surface. Squeeze or pour a small puddle of paint onto a plastic or paper plate, and practice stamping with your utensils. Dip utensils into the paint or brush paint on. Once you feel comfortable with your practice paper, tape a piece or two of paper to a wall and try out your stamps again. Heavy-bodied acrylic paint is less prone to drips or runs than lighter weight paints, but working on a vertical surface is worth practicing. Use damp towels or a sponge to clean up mistakes or spatters.

Experiment with design patterns and step back at least 6 feet from your work to evaluate its impact on a wall surface. Use fork tines to make criss-crosses, a slotted triangular pie server to suggest bird or butterfly wings. Jar lids provide circles of all sizes. Try cookie cutters both as stamps and as stencils. If the line they leave as stamps is too thin for the effect you want, you may prefer to trace them and paint them in solid colors. Potato mashers come in two styles, one a cross-hatched round head, the other a thick zigzag wire. Use them separately or together to create flamboyant flowers.

Mark out space to be stamped with masking tape, especially if you are creating a border close to the ceiling or a mock chair rail. Even the most careful painter will be too close to his/her work to follow a straight line. If your border involves a background color, apply it now and let it dry thoroughly, for at least eight hours, before stamping.

Apply your design with your utensils. Since repetitive work with relatively small instruments can be tiring, allow for frequent breaks to keep your focus clear. The quality of your work is likely to be more consistent if you plan four, 15-minute work sessions rather than a single, uninterrupted 60-minute work session.

Clean up drips, slips or spatters as you go along. Wet acrylic paint is easily removed with water. Let your completed design dry for eight hours or more before adding more detail or retouching anything with a brush.