I Heart Decoupage

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Almost 3 years ago I found this living room furniture set at a thrift store for $50. I waited until they marked it down to $25 and I grabbed it! I've wanted to refinish them for a long time! The pieces are particle board mostly, so stripping and refinishing have never been an option for me. I year or so ago I painted the two end tables with a flat oatmeal color..I didn't like it, but I didn't change it, I just used them in my bedroom for nightstands. The coffee table had long been abandoned to my kids' game room in the garage. But a bit of inspiration from my ever evolving French accent living room got me thinking about decoupage! 

Here's what I ended up doing...
 I draped my table for the gluey mess of yuck. I know that many people swear by Modge Podge, I have not tried it yet, but since I was looking for a tarnished old world look, I decided to do old fashioned glue decoupage and finish it with Polyurethane, which I love. (standard school glue, diluted with water)


 I spent a nice chunk of my morning hunting down images of newsprint from the early 1900's or older, french news stories and documents....it was incredibly fun! I found some neat things, and picked a few.

 After arranging them, I marked where to use a tearing/trim technique (you know, hold a ruler down and tear up the edge). I wanted the pieces to overlap, but just a 1/2 inch or so, since the glue water mixture can create transparency, and I didn't want the images to be muttled together.



 After gluing down the top images and the straight sides, I decided that I wanted black legs. Ok...so see the middle picture, that's the second table started off right. It was no easy task marking off all of my work to paint the legs after....I really do need to learn to plan better. No matter, it looks great! After the black dried, I coated the paper covered areas with the polyurethane and let it dry for 24 hours.


 I've only finished the one end table, but I think it's amazing! I've started the other end table and I'm reclaiming my coffee table from the kids this weekend! I'll post a whole room shot when I'm done with all 3. 
Thanks for reading.

Comments

  1. AJ HilemanMarch 27, 2012 at 1:22 PM

    That turned out beautifully! I wonder if I can convince the rest of my family to let me do something like this to the boring computer "desk" that wound up living in my room...

    ReplyDelete

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