Cowboy Style Stenciling Ideas

Cowboy Icons

• For a classic cowboy look, use one or all of the following icons: horseshoe, star, cowboy hat, saddle, cow, fence, or lasso. If you plan to use more than one, alternate solid shapes (like a cow or a hat) with more "airy" shapes (such as the fencing and the lasso). Consider stenciling a quote from a cowboy song or a line from a cowboy poet like Robert Service along with the shapes.

Fence and Stars Border

• A fence and stars stencil sequence makes an easy, no-fuss border that evokes the cowboy's open range and can be used in a child's bedroom, a themed guest room, or throughout a Western-style home as a visually unifying device. Choose one or two appropriate paint colors, such as mocha brown for the fence sections and sunflower yellow for the stars. Get a star stencil and find or make a fence stencil. The fence stencil should be simple, almost geometric, depicting a section of fencing consisting of two long, parallel horizontal bars crossed in the middle by a short vertical bar. The horizontal bars should extend well out from either side of the vertical bar.

  Alternate a star with five or six repetitions of the fence stencil. Overlap the ends of the horizontal bars each time you repeat the fence stencil, thus creating the illusion of a continuous line of fencing.

Home on the Range Motif

• Incorporate the stenciled phrase "Home on the range." Surround it with a repeated pattern of a campfire (two crossed logs and flames, separated by a thin space), a lasso and a horse.