DIY Nautical Crab Stencil Wall Art

I have always loved my grandma’s home – it’s bright and light and overlooks a beautiful waterway in the Bay Area. It feels beachy and homey, filled with blue, gold and white shades throughout. I wanted to bring a piece of grandma’s house back to Alabama with me, but didn’t know how until I saw the Maryland/Baltimore Crab Logo stencil.

It was nautical and funky and interesting and I knew it’d make a perfect piece of DIY decor in my new apartment. Creating it on my grandma’s porch made it even more perfect.

I bought a $3 wooden board in the “Hobby Wood” section at Home Depot. After heading to three stores to find acrylic paint with no luck (Joann’s didn’t have paint, what??), I bought some small bottles at Target.

I used Forget-Me-Not, Oxford Blue and White satin paints. The gold metallic paint was called 20K Gold.

The whole project took about 15 minutes from set up to clean up, which is pretty quick for a big piece of wall art. To set up, I simply straightened the stencil onto the board and taped all four sides down. I also filled out an old plastic container with water to rinse between colors and a paper towel to wipe off the brush.

 That’s how easy this was.

I didn’t even need an easel (AKA tin foil at my house). I just dipped the brush right in the paint bottles and went to town.

Although the process was super simple, one challenge was that I had to learn to be mindful of how much paint was on my brush when going in for the smaller details in the claws and legs. If too much paint was down, it would seep under the stencil when I took pressure off it.

If I had to complete this DIY wall art project all over again, I would make a few small tweaks. First, I would be more generous with each paint color layer. When I was down to gold left, I needed it to fill a lot of empty space, which wasn’t ideal because it’s similar in color to the board.

The main thing I would do differently is to pick a better background for my crab. To really sell the nautical element, I want to see it painted on a rustic, weathered piece of wood. Especially some faded old white boards, man, that would look great (someone please make that).

How would you style this crab to fit the aesthetics of your home? Send in your projects to projects@stencilstop.com or hit us up on Facebook or @stencilstop on Instagram. We can’t wait to see your nautical DIY wall art!