I am back with the promise I made regarding decoupage. Here is the chair that I was working on. Phew....Its finally over and my daughter has been using it. She is very happy and feels like she is on the throne.
This is a wooden chair made of teak and is about 40 years old. A look at the chair before the makeover.
1. Sand the wooden chair using a sand paper. Fill any holes and cracks using some wax.
2. With a flat brush, paint the whole chair in oil paint (black). I used a bit of red to break the monotony (for the legs and the openings in the back rest).
3. Once it is dry, decide on your motifs. In this case, since I was doing it for my daughter who is just 4 years old, I decided to go in for some pictures of different flowers, flags, means of transport, fish, birds and their nest as the chair could act as a part of her learning. I finely cut out all these pictures from the charts, soaked them in water for some time. If the pictures are too thick, then you need to smoothen it from behind using a sand paper to reduce the thickness of the paper.
4. Once these pictures are ready, stick them using fevicol at the desired places.
5. I then gave a few rough strokes in copper acrylic paint and wrote out text like Birds, Flowers...etc.,....just to add some glamour to the chair.
6. Now, using a flat brush, give the whole chair a coating using the decoupage liquid. (As an easy method, I generally dilute the fevicol a little by adding water and use it).
7. Give generous coats (4-5 layers) of this liquid in such a way that the pictures smoothen out on the chair and look as if they are painted on the chair. Ensure that every coat thoroughly dries before you apply the next one.
8. If you want a shine, then give it a coat of varnish.
In these days of recession, please do not throw away any of your furniture........Instead, think of innovative ways to using them beautifully. Please let me know if you recently did anything that you would like to showcase on my blog. Share a picture or information at vasudha.dilip@gmail.com.