Adding decking in the garden is such a great way of creating a social space for your family, providing an extra living area for the warmer months. The problem in the UK is our weather!

We created our decking space back in April 2017 and within two years it had become dirty, damp and unsightly and I had a bright idea to stencil it to brighten up the space and add character and pattern.

I’ve worked really hard on our house and the garden had become totally neglected, so I was looking for a way to bring colour and pattern to the garden so it became an extension of our home. I had looked at perhaps painting the decking grey or just stripping it down and varnishing it and adding rugs but I wanted something a little more permanent.

I did a little bit of research and came across a few posts and images where the decking or patio area had been painted with a stencil, so I thought I would give it a go!

The first thing I had to do was strip down the decking and clean it. We were gifted a 1600W Pressure washer by VonHaus which was extremely easy to use and stripped off all the mould, dirt and debris from our decking, making it good as new again.

All we had to do was connect the pressure washer to our outdoor tap and plug it in and it was good to go. It took me about 5 hours to get all the dirt and grime off the decking and was very therapeutic!

Once I had cleaned and pressure washed the decking, I had to leave it for a few days to completely dry out and the next sunny day I set to work. I contacted Dizzy Duck Designs who I found through Etsy, asking if they had a stencil I could use in the garden and they sent me their Valencia Tile stencil in XL (45cm x 45cm) as I had a large area to cover and thought this would be quicker!

As the stencil turns up in a cardboard tube, take care to take it out and straighten it. It needs to be uncurled in the opposite direction and the best way to do this is to lie it on top of the paper that it comes with, lie the stencil in the opposite way of the curl and then attach it to the cardboard tube and roll it around the tube, fixing it with sticky tape. I left it like this over night and it was more or less straight when I unfastened it.

Next job was to choose the paint colour. As the decking covered such a huge area, I knew I wanted the background to be white with either a dark grey or blue pattern and I chose the woodcare partner of Dulux – Cuprinol and their shades White Daisy & Silver Birch (if you want to see more on Cuprinol, click here).

I needed 2 x pots of 2.5L of White Daisy and one 2.5L pot of Silver Birch.

I bought a paint roller on a pole from B&Q to paint the decking white which needed two coats. It took me about 3 hours to complete and I had to wait another day for this to dry completely.

Then it was a case of painting the stencil onto the decking which I knew would take up the bulk of my time. To paint the stencilling, you will need –

• Dizzy Duck Designs Stencil

• A stencil brush or small foam roller

• Water-based paints

• Frog tape

• Cotton ear buds

• A damp cloth

• Old newspaper or cardboard

• A gardening cushion to kneel on

I positioned the stencil in the far corner of the decking and secured it with frog tape and emptied the Silver Birch Cuprinol paint into a roller tray. I then applied paint onto the small foam roller, being careful not to put too much paint on it.

Less is more and I rolled the excess paint from the roller onto an old newspaper until the roller was almost dry. I applied the paint in thin layers, making sure I mopped up any mistakes with a damp cloth and kept applying the colour until I was happy with the shade.

Dizzy Duck Designs send you two stencils to use so that you can paint quicker. I would start by using a stencil, giving it a quick clean and letting it dry in the sun whilst I used the other one.

Each stencil also comes with a guide on the edge of the stencil so you can match it up to the previous painted pattern and keep it consistent.

You also get 2 x half stencils so you can still get into those trickier areas without having to bend the stencil. I needed to use these where the decking met the wall as there wasn’t enough room to use a whole stencil.

Once I finished the border on the main part of the decking, I started on the decking that runs along the bifold doors which took me around 3 hours to complete.

And that’s it! From start to finish it probably took me about 12 hours to complete and it’s completely transformed the decking and makes the area much brighter and lighter which is ideal when it is east facing.

The Dizzy Duck Design stencil and Cuprinol paint were extremely easy to use and apply and from a distance can look like real tiling. I would definitely do it again and use these products.

Mel x