Pink & Gold Stenciled Chest Of Drawers Makeover..

Chest of Drawers D.I.Y. makeover for my tiny beautiful little niece Yasmin.. hope she likes it!

There really was nothing wrong with this lovely mid-century piece that a little paint and faffing couldn't fix. It was  chipped and scratched all over but it was built to last with amazing dovetailed details and solid veneers. 

I painted it a soft blush pink and used a simple stencil from Rustoleum to add in some gold accents to the top and drawer fronts.. 

I used some gold and pink wrapping paper I found in TK Max to line the drawers..

This chest of drawers has the cutest little handkerchief drawer on top with a tiny simple drawer pull so a painted the drawer pull pink first and then lightly feathered on the gold wax around the edges.

Here's a little close-up detail of the painted gold handels.. 

I wanted to add a little something extra so I made this design for around the drawers from crafters clay and painted it pink and gold.. (more about this below)

Look at the legs on this piece! Gorgeous.. so I did nothing special just painted the tips of the legs in gold..

For the very top of this piece I just feathered those thin edges over the little handkerchief drawer with gold..

Normally I would finish with a coat or two of Annie Sloan wax but seeing as this is going into a nursery I gave it three coats of clear varnish so it can withstand a little more wear and tear.

And that's it.  Lets hope little Yasmin loves it :-)

You can scroll on down for more photos and step by step instructions..

So first things first we cleaned the whole thing up and then Paul aka Yasmin's Dad:-) sprayed it all over with a coat of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in 'Olde White'. I was going to just paint it but he had it done in jig time with that electric paint sprayer! Think I'll be borrowing that sometime in the future ..

Next step was to make the decorative clay applique (or also called decorative moulding) to add a little more detail to the drawers before painting the whole thing pink. I made the appliques from modelling air dry clay and a decorative picture frame you'll see in the photos below and glued them in place using a regular arts and crafts type glue.

First roll out your piece of clay..

Once the first coat of white paint was applied and the clay aplique glued in place I gave the chest of drawers a coat of custom mixed pink paint all over. I just added a tiny dash of red Dulux paint to the  'Olde White' Paint to get a very light baby pink colour. Looks like strawberry ripple ice cream!

Once the paint was dry I taped off the decorative applique (see below) and sort of feather dusted on the gold (which is actually a gilding wax) with a small soft artists brush. Don't go too heavy with the gold. Less is more on this step..

Taping off the applique helps give a nice straight edge to the gold details. 

Here's the stencil I used below it's one I found in our local hardware shop. Simple but effective!

Supplies..

Easy D.I.Y. (no-sewing) Painted & Recovered Chair Makover.

Side Chair painted with a custom mixed cobalt blue colour and finished in Annie Sloan Dark Wax all over

Before & After...

Not bad for a €20 chair I picked up from the charity shop where I volunteer  (cat not included).

And if you want to add the 'Hygge' touch..   :-)

 The worn green velvet fabric was removed and then reupholstered with a fresh blue, off white and gray striped linen cotton mix fabric.

The paint I used is a custom mix from artists paints I had on hand but Annie Sloan has a chalk paint in Napoleonic Blue which would probably work out more economical as I have used Annis Sloan paints before and the can seems to last forever.  

Easy Peasy  and a great little starter project if you're into crafts and D.I.Y. like me :-)

Finding Design Inspiration In Nature..

I can definitely see why a lot of textile designers look to nature for their inspiration. This tiny little insect has the most beautiful lime, yellow, green and brown combination. I spotted him on a leaf in our front garden and he seems to be taking on the colours of the leaf!  He was so well camouflaged I almost missed him.

 And if you look even closer he's also got a fascinating texture to his body as well. It's almost like a beaten copper effect.  I shot this photo while I was trying out my new DSLR Cannon EOS and after seeing the detail on this little guy I definitely think I'll keep it.

As my lovely father would say 'you just can't beat nature'.

Super Easy D.I.Y. Furniture Applique Technique

This is so easy! And inexpensive! You just need clay from any craft shop, mine cost about €3.00, pick the design you want to use as your mould and follow the steps  and photos below..
This is the table before all the palaver of painting and waxing etc. It's quite cracked in places and a lot of the veneer has chipped off so overall it's a good candidate for a makeover. Notice that at this point it has no decorative detail on the legs.

Below are some close up 'after' shots of the table after I applied and painted over the Appliques.

I took my table outside to get much better lighting given that it was such a beautiful day and ended up getting some great company to boot..

Here's some close ups of  the clay appliques during the process of testing out what shades of blue or green I wanted this piece to be.





Here's what I used to get this 'Carved Wood Effect'. One pack of wet clay (from any art and craft store).A rolling pin. Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I used the graphite colour (for my base coat) I used Annie Sloan Persian Green mixed with other artists paints I had on hand to get the final colour I wanted but you can use any colour you like. Some wood glue. And for the design motif I used a decorative framed mirror to 'lift' the design for my carved wood look.  
Roll out a thick strip of the clay and flatten it with the rolling pin. 

You'll need something to get your 'carved wood effect look from'. I used the detailing from this little mirror I already had. It's curved so I had to straighten my applique out and patch pieces together to get the length I needed but this was easy enough as the clay is so malleable at this point.

I pressed the strip of clay firmly but gently onto the design and lifted it off carefully and slowly and then applied it to the legs of the table using the glue. 
And that's it. ( I know it's a completely different colour in the photo below because I used a light green colour on this table first but then completely changed my mind and went for the darker green colour. 

The clay is still soft at this point so I just carefully pressed the damp clay applique onto the wood and then worked the edges with my fingers into the sides of the leg of the table to make it look like it was 'carved' into the table. I then trimmed off any excess with a knife 

When it was dry I painted over the whole thing with the darker Annie Sloan Persian Green Colour and then gave it two coats of Annie Sloan Clear Wax. 

I dry brushed on some gold colour very lightly  for an extra touch using a gilding wax called 'Cire A Dorer' (see photo below)

Myrtle & Buttercup :-)

Thanks for reading and if you would like any more information you can contact me here.
You can use any paint you prefer with this project but I use Annie Sloan Chalk Paint as my base coat because you do not need to sand your piece first when using Annie Sloan paint. And the 'no sanding part' makes me very happy.  I then custom mix what ever colours I want after that and wax the piece all over with any good quality wax. But if you don't want to custom mix everything then just apply your clay design as above, paint with two coats of Annie Sloan chalk Paint and wax with Annie Sloan Wax for durability and shine and your done.
and that's it..
Cheers..
Marie

Before..

After..