The human race have been using stencils for thousands of years. There is evidence of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all having used stencils. In fact, stencils have been used by many cultures around the world, throughout history to create decorative imagery.
One of the things I battle with when I tell people that I design stencils and use them on my painted furniture, is the perception of what stencilled furniture looks like. I know they are thinking about the stencil overload of the ‘8os and ’90s.
The blog Apartment Therapy recently posted one of my ‘before and after’ projects, which proved to be quite contentious. There were over 60 comments about the piece which debated the rights and wrongs of painting wooden furniture. There were a couple of comments in particular which referred to the use of stencils and the expectation of what that would look like. You can read the comments here .
There are many people out there doing really beautiful things with stencils and not just on furniture. There are gorgeous things happening on floors and walls and fabric too. I for one am going to continue with my mission to change the way people think about stencilling. 
Decorate Decorate 
My Internet connection is ridiculously slow and the comments on that link won’t load but I love stenciled furniture that is done right. I just recently did a reverse stencil on a credenza that I love love love. You don’t have to convince me 🙂