Design Ideas,Furniture | July 11, 20081 Comment

Your Weekend Project

We’re halfway through summer Рa time when everyone starts to get a bit bored. The garden is done, our tans are looking good, and the kids are driving us all crazy. What we need is a project – one we can do with the kids. And if it will bring new life to a space in our home, then I say, “Let’s get this party started.”

I found the perfect project in the June issue of Marie Claire Id?©es. (If you can find a copy pick it up. It‚Äôs always lots of fun. You can use it to improve your French, too.) We‚Äôre going to overhaul an old dresser and make it look cool.

Materials
One old dresser – try Goodwill, garage sales, your basement or attic
Nautical maps, wallpaper or other decorative paper
Graphite stick, or transfer sheet
Tack cloth (if desired)
Wallpaper paste
Rag or cloth
Exacto knife and straight edge
Red and white acrylic paint (or other colors that match the paper)

Papering the Dresser
Remove the knobs from the drawers and paint them white, or other matching color. If you want a perfect job, sand down any bumps you don’t like, and wash the dresser. Then, use a tack cloth to pick up and extra particles.

Lay the paper sheets out so they’re in a pattern you like. One at a time, brush the back of the sheets with the wallpaper paste and lay them on the dresser. Pass a wet cloth across the paper, starting in the center of each sheet and moving toward the edges. This will remove any bubbles. It’s okay if the paper overlaps a little. Just make sure it’s glued down nicely.

Using the Exacto knife and a straight edge, very carefully cut the extra paper along the edges of the drawers and drawer openings.

Painting the Compass Point
While the paper is drying, print out the compass point, or find a different one you like. Enlarge it to a size you like. Make a few copies, just in case you need them.

To transfer the design, cover the back of the paper with graphite. Or, you can use a transfer sheet (a paper already coated with graphite). Take 4 small pieces of masking tape and stick them to your jeans. Peel them up. This takes a lot of the stick out of the tape so it won’t tear the paper. Then, tape your design onto the dresser and lightly trace along the design. Use a straight edge to make a perfect line.

Fill in your design with paint and paint around the edges. To get a clean line, you can use tape. But be careful that it’s not too sticky.

Put the knobs back on the dresser, put the dresser in the room of your choice. The dresser will look so good that everything else will look old next to it, which means you’ll have to spend next weekend shopping for new sheets.

Enjoy!

Tags: diy