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February 27, 2012

How To Paint Furniture: Stenciling

Today I'm showing you one of my favorite furniture makeovers and showing you how I stencil furniture.


Stenciling Tips & Tricks | LiveLoveDIY


 This was an old wooden vanity table and stool that I found on Craigslist for $10. I painted it with my homemade chalk paint, changed the hardware, reupholstered it, stenciled it, and added a spray-painted mirror hung above it. This was the finished result: 

How To Paint & Stencil Furniture: Great tutorial!

Basically, I did everything you could possibly do to turn an outdated thrify find into something snazzy. And all for under $20 total.

How To Paint & Stencil Furniture: Great tutorial!

This was the first piece of furniture I ever stenciled. I would usually just paint or refinish a piece, but with this small vanity table, I decided to try something different. 


How To Paint & Stencil Furniture: Great tutorial!


I painted the entire table (using Behr Creamy White converted into chalk paint) and then stenciled a lattice design using gold metallic paint. I forgot to snap a before picture (this was done before my blogging days), so just imagine a knotty-pine-nightmare and you'll have a good idea of what this used to look like before a coat of white paint.

How To Paint & Stencil Furniture: Great tutorial!

And then there's the awesome rose-upholstery.
I decided to replace that with some neutral material.

Here's some details in case you'd like to try this at home.

Supplies:

How To Paint & Stencil Furniture: Great tutorial!


1. Upholstery fabric of your choice (I used about 1/3 of a yard.)
2. trim (optional)
3. Staple gun & staples
4. scissors
5. screw driver
6. hot glue gun & hot glue sticks
7. painter's tape
8. metallic paint for stencil (or color of your choice)
9. stencil
10. paintbrush or roller

(and of course the paint to paint the whole vanity & stool if yours is also a wooden monstrosity)

PART I: UPHOLSTERY

To reupholster the stool, you first have to remove the top cushion from the base of the stool. It's usually screwed on and a simple screwdriver will do the trick.

How To Paint & Stencil Furniture: Great tutorial!

 Next, separate the cushion from the base and place the cushion on your fabric. Make sure the side of the fabric you want to show is facing the floor. Like this:

How To Paint & Stencil Furniture: Great tutorial!

 Make sure there is enough fabric on each side to wrap over the edge. Staple around all four sides, leaving just the four corners unstapled.

How To Paint & Stencil Furniture: Great tutorial!
Once your cushion looks like the above picture, you are ready to finish the corners. To make the corners look as smooth as possible, I cut the majority of the fabric off of the corner and leave just a little strip of fabric remaining. Then, I pull the strip as far as I can towards the middle and staple it securely to the wooden bottom. It should look something like this once the corners are finished:

How To Paint & Stencil Furniture: Great tutorial!

Now, you are ready to reattach the cushion to the base! I just poked around for the original holes and then matched them up with the holes on the base. Then simply screw the original screws back in.
Voila! Your stool is now upholstered with pretty new fabric!

How To Paint & Stencil Furniture: Great tutorial!

Now, to make your stool look nice, I think it is best to use some trim to cover the gap between the base and cushion. I purchased 2 yards of trim from Hobby Lobby for $4 total. You simply start at one corner and hot glue it around the edges.

How To Paint & Stencil Furniture: Great tutorial!

and then you will have something that looks like this.

How To Paint & Stencil Furniture: Great tutorial!

PART II: STENCIL THE TABLE

I found this 'Iron Lattice' wall stencil at Hobby Lobby.

How To Paint & Stencil Furniture: Great tutorial!

Take the stencil and tape it where you want it on the first half of the table (with your blue painter's tape).

How To Paint & Stencil Furniture: Great tutorial!

Next, dip your roller in your paint choice
 and paint over the the part covered by the stencil. Go light on the paint so that it doesn't seep under the stencil. I rolled my roller over a paper towel a few times before I started.

How To Paint & Stencil Furniture: Great tutorial!

While the paint is still wet, remove the tape and the stencil. It should look like this:

How To Paint & Stencil Furniture: Great tutorial!

Next, match up the stencil and repeat on the opposite side. Again, remove the stencil and you will have this:

How To Paint & Stencil Furniture: Great tutorial!

And you're done!

 If you want to add a mirror, you can be cheap like me and find a thrift store mirror with a decent frame and spray paint it. This one was originally dark wood and I simply painted it gold.

I think it looks so great in the bedroom. Almost everything in this bedroom came from a thrift store and has been repurposed.

How To Paint & Stencil Furniture: Great tutorial!




How To Paint & Stencil Furniture: Great tutorial!

Don't forget to pin this post so you can find it when you need it!

Stenciling Tips & Tricks | LiveLoveDIY



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February 25, 2012

The Beginner's Guide to Painting Furniture

If you've ever wondered how to paint your old wooden furniture, well then today's post is for you! Welcome to my beginner's guide to painting furniture. 


The beginner's guide to painting furniture. Great tips!



I'm a huge fan of doing big things on a small budget.
I think you can create something awesome and not have to spend a fortune to do so. It just requires creativity and the willingness to get your hands dirty. Painting old thrift store furniture is one of the ways I do that.

Here's my favorite find ever, my bedroom dresser. I scored it secondhand for only $50, and completely transformed it with some homemade chalk paint. 
See chalk paint recipe here....scroll down to tip #6.

I absolutely love the way it turned out. 

The beginner's guide to painting furniture. Great tips!



This dresser was a total score, and I knew immediately that I could turn it into a piece I would love for a long time.
Here is how it originally looked the day I brought it home.

How To Paint Furniture: Great tutorial anyone can use to update old furniture!


This thing was a total ugly duckling at first.  And this 'before' pic does it way more justice than it deserves. It was a dirty, smoky, beaten up, rickety old dresser. 

It took a lot of work to transform this dresser into such a babe, but it was well worth it!

Here's how I did it:

#1. I took out the drawers and removed the handles.


#2. Sanded the whole thing down with my trusty sander.

#3. Coated the whole thing with Zinsser Primer. (See why you should prime first here.)


This is THE primer to use on furniture. It makes your paint adhere like crazy and covers up any smells or stains. Click through to read a great tutorial on how to paint furniture like a pro.



#4. Painted the drawers & frame with 2 coats of Behr Premium 'Creamy White' that I converted into chalk paint. If you use chalk paint, you can actually skip the sanding and priming part, but I wanted this dresser to be really durable so I did it anyways.



#5. Once the paint was thoroughly dry, I put the drawers back in and screwed in the hardware. Then I finished the whole thing with Minwax Finishing Wax (Amazon Affiliate link). All you do is rub some of it on the furniture with a rag and then buff it out. It buffs out to a beautiful finish, and makes painted furniture look fabulous.



This gives the best finish to painted furniture! Click through for a great tutorial on how to paint furniture like a pro.



I usually change out the hardware when I redo furniture, but the hardware on this piece was pretty, so I just left it alone.


How To Paint Furniture: Great tutorial anyone can use to update old furniture!


How To Paint Furniture: Great Tutorial via LiveLoveDIY

My favorite tip is to paint the insides of your drawers. It looks beautiful and it gets rid of any smells or stains.


This is a great idea! Paint the insides of old furniture to make them look and smell like new again.

I'm totally hooked on painting the insides of drawers now. Best upgrade to an old dresser ever! 
You can see more about how to do that here.

I love the way the dresser turned out, and love the way it looks in the master bedroom.

How To Paint Furniture: Great Tutorial via LiveLoveDIY


If you want to read more about our bedroom, you can check out this post about the 10 different looks this room has had since the start of this blog and all of the crazy mistakes I've made along the way! I can almost guarantee you'll enjoy it. :)

And thanks so much for stopping by today! I'm so glad you're here!



For related posts, please check out the following:

 
The beginner's guide to painting furniture. Awesome tips!



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