How to transform your old drawers.

I have been wanting to do this for a good while and I finally found the time last Saturday evening. This was one of my favourite diy projects to date. I didn't spend a single penny and it took all of 45 minutes! 

If you want to give it a go here is how I did it.

These are the two drawers I used, they were hanging around the shed for yonks. 

I sanded them down and stained them. I always use Colron wood dye, it soaks in really fast and is easy to apply with an old cloth.

        

                                         
            Wear gloves when using the die! I know this but I never learn, freshly painted nails n'all :)

I picked a nice bright paint from my selection that would pop with the dark brown. And painted just the rim of the drawers. Drilled two holes into what would have been the front of the drawer and found some rope to tie through as a handle. I really wanted a natural brown rope but I also wanted to get it done there and then knowing if I left it it would never get done. I found some orange rope and actually I think it looks pretty cool with the turquoise paint :)

Ta dah!! The finished result. I love them, alot :)

I got these amazing graphic animal prints from Stencilize I am a big fan of her work.

I have these hanging over my bed so I made sure they where pretty secure for obvious reasons. However I was still clocked in the face by the giant light bulb the next morning, I will be sticking that down :)

I am so happy with how they turned out. There is potential in everything!

If you decide you are going to try this out for yourself I would love to see your finished products. You can share them with me here Style 25.

Dee x

How to personalise your furniture.

I spent the whole day Sunday at the most amazing DIY workshop OhMeOhMyDIY. I was privilaged to have been asked to be a mentor on upcycling. I had to get my thinking hat on though as I don't hand paint furniture, I spray paint it and I didn't want to knock everyone out with the fumes. So for one of my examples I decided to create a stencil on a small table so I would only have to spray a small section. 

A regular stencil won't do when using spray paint as the pressure will cause the paint to spread underneath. So this is how I did it... 

 Firstly I sanded and stained the piece. I found an image on google that I liked and printed it out on A4 paper. Then I covered the area I wanted to stencil in masking tape, stuck the print out down on top & used that as my guide. Using a scalpel I cut out the lettering. You don't have to put much pressure on the scalpel it will easily slice through the paper & masking tape together.

This is the most time consuming part but totally worth it! Just make sure you choose something that isn't too intricate. 

Once it is all cut out remove the remaining printed paper. At this point you can see how it is going to look & tidy up any little bits.

 Cover the rest of the piece well so it doesn't get any spray paint on it. I also took the legs off to save me wrapping them up.

I decided to spray the edge of the table as well to tie the whole thing together. 

Now you are ready to get spraying :) For small projects like this I just use a can of spray paint which you can get in Vibes & Scribes for €5.50.

 Once dry peel off all of the masking tape, buff with wet&dry paper & add a few coats of lacquer.

And here you go, the finished result! A simple, virtually mess free way to personalise a piece of furniture.

If any of you decide to give it a go I would love to see your finished products. Share them with me here: Style 25.

Happy painting!

Dee x