Paint and Decoupage

In case I haven't mentioned it, I have been involved with several Meetup groups lately.  I actually started two myself:  one for upcycling in general (crafts, home decor, etc.) and the other upcycling of fashion with clothes refashions, mostly through sewing.  You should check out the meetup website to see if there are any of interest in your area!


The general upcycling group has had one group meetup and two "work on a project" meetups.  One project that I worked was the painting and decoupage of three small furniture pieces.  I invited two group members to come over and help or work their projects.  It turned out that only one member was able to show, but we had a good time.   I did not complete the projects.  Let's just say, I was a little overzealous with what I thought I could accomplish in the allotted time. We were able to paint two pieces (mostly) and decoupage one little part.  We still had fun!

Anyway, I failed to take before shots, but just know that of the three items, two were dumpster finds. I am just now getting around to finishing the pieces up but I must say, I am pretty happy with the results.

A little history on why I was working these projects to begin with.  In getting the place ready to list, I have been working to stage it.  I invited a friend over that has an eye for this type thing and she suggested that the three pieces, which are all close to my front door, were too hodgepodge due to being different colors.  Probably due to being dumpster finds too :)  So she suggested that I paint them all white.  I am not really a plain white kind of person but I do agree that they need to have a consistent look.  Anyway, blah, blah, blah....here they are.

This first one was an oaky orange color, like you can still see on the slots.  My meetup friend and I painted it with a diy chalk paint....not the best I ever made.  It did not cover as well as I have had it work in the past. I decided to leave those slots since the paint wasn't covering well and they would likely chip with use on those anyway.   This was an "other than color" - nice thriftstore junk corral.  

I added the decoupage on the outside for interest and to the inside to hide some of the streakiness.  Now that it is in there, I really like it.

The next item is one that we never got around to at the meetup.  This is an IKEA-like bookshelf that was sitting by a neighbor's garbage cans a while back.  It has travelled around the house for a while in its slate grey color.  It recently landed in the kitchen as a more compact and decorative storage spot for my pantry canisters.  If you look back through my posts, I did have a table there at one point with my microwave on it and tons of pots under it....well remember, this is all about staging.  I had to nix the table to keep the kitchen from looking too small and most of the pots are in the storage unit.  Yes my kitchen is big enough, I just have too much stuff.

I was supposed to paint this white too, but it is a laminate type material.  I know that you should be able to paint that with chalk paint but I just have visions of it scraping off every time I grab some sugar.  And I actually like the grey when it is paired with the graphic on this scrapbook paper.

I am sure my friend will take away some of the stuff that doesn't match so well.

The paper on the shelves is not decoupaged in place.  I just used some sticky squares to hold those.  The grids slide out and I could just see the paper getting ripped when I slid the grids back in.  Or not being able to get the grids to slide due to tacky paper.

I do see excess paper hanging out the back now that I have a picture.  I'll trim that.

The final project, that we did start at the meetup, is this dumpster find shelvy thingy.  It was easily disassembled for painting.  I did the decoupage on my own later.  The shelf was stained dark, scratched up,  very wobbly and is still missing feet (I have balls of tin foil on the bottom for now).

It looks fabulous now!

At the meetup, we discussed ripping the paper to cover these but it turned out fine to just overlap the edge of two pieces.  It blends with the pattern.

I didn't bother to distress since the paint didn't cover well anyway.  It looks like a whitewash.

Now a more cohesive look.  The grey shelf is just a step away in the kitchen.  Even though it is not white, it ties together now because of the decoupage.

These three projects were not my best work.  The paint didn't cover as well as I'd like.  I couldn't find my exact-to knife for cutting the paper.  It is cut very crooked with scissors, even ripped in a few places.  The paper I used was really too thick for decoupage so it has some bubbles where I just could not get it to adhere well.  But for it not be my best work, they look pretty darn good right?  I guess the style of paper just lends to hiding the imperfections.  And going white gave it a whitewashed look, which is also very forgiving.

I am glad I tackled them as a meetup!  Scheduling the time forces me to just get it done.  It was fun to work on them with someone who loves to upcycle like me.  I wonder what my staging friend will think?

Ignore those ugly bi-fold door in the background.  I had to put them back up (where I had a curtain before), because a buyer will want to see doors.  I have it on my list to paint them....I am thinking a hammered bronze color.  Too much?