Easy pattern stenciling tutorial- DIY

I wanted to share with you guys an easy way I found to stencil a pattern on a table top or dresser top.  I'm certain that I'm not the first to discover this technique, but it made my process so much easier, I had to share:-)

Materials needed:

• A painted piece of furniture, of course! In my case I used a bombe chest that I picked up at a thrift store and painted in Annie Sloan "Old White"
• stencil of your choice- I went with a small damask stencil, I purchased at Michaels craft store
• Painters tape
• Thread
• Scissors
• Tape measure

Step 1: I started out by placing the stencil in the lower right hand corner, measuring the height of the stencil, and cutting a piece of thread to run across (taping it on each side to hold it in place.

Materials needed and first row taped!

Step 2: I then measured the same height of the stencil in the next row and cut/taped another piece of thread lengthwise across the nightstand.

Step 3:After I taped the thread from right to left, I measured and taped the thread from top to bottom the same way:

Once you measure the width of the stencil, set your tape measure to hold in that position, and it makes it much easier to measure the other boxes to make sure your thread is straight the entire way!

You'll end up with something that looks like this:

If you want to stencil a straight block pattern, you can start stenciling at this point, but I wanted to offset each row into a continuous pattern.

Step 4: So, I removed the stencil from the lower right corner, and placed it in the second row, centering the thread through the middle of the stencil.
I then placed a very small piece of tape at the intersection of the threads to hold it in place, and snipped the middle of the thread so I wasn't left with a "thread line" when I stenciled this spot:

I placed a small piece of tape just over the top and bottom of the stencil to mark the spot where I would place it

 Step 5: On every other row, repeat this step, and you'll end up with something that looks like this:

Step 6: Start painting your stencils! I use a small piece of painters tape to hold my stencil in place each time I move it, and a round stencil brush to dab the paint on.  As you can see, I've used this stencil many times, and have cut it in an odd shape (it was previously part of another stencil), so you have to be cautious not to let your brush fray over the edge.

I stenciled the top in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint "Graphite" and finished it off with some distressing, the hardware with a silver leafing liquid, and two coats of a satin polyurethane.

Here's the finished product:

 This piece is also still available in my Etsy shop, at 10% off with this coupon code for my blog readers and facebook followers: "ALCHEMY2013"
Click here to see it on Etsy:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/171370069/chic-black-and-white-damask-bombe-chest?ref=shop_home_feat

DIY Decoupage Dresser

So I'm finally getting around to my first "How-To" post! Last week I completed a custom ordered dresser with decoupaged drawer fronts, and got several questions about the best paper to use/best way to do decoupage, so I thought I would post a little tutorial on what my process is!

There are lots of different glues/materials that you can use to decoupage (even fabric!) but for the sake of simplicity, I'm just going to stick with what works best for me. I've done A LOT of decoupage pieces, and mind you, the first few didn't turn out so well, so the best advice I could give is to practice on something before you tackle a large project like this one!

I've found that the thicker the paper, the better the results, so if you're doing a large project, it's better to invest in some quality paper (you'll see the results are so worth it!), so the client I was working with picked out a paper from Paper Source, it's my favorite place to snag large pieces of paper to use on decoupage.  It does run around $4.00 per sheet, but the fact that it comes in large sizes and it a good quality will save a lot of headache later on! For smaller areas, I've found that scrap booking paper works equally well.

Materials needed:

• paper (of course
• scissors
• painters tape
• glue (I stick with Mod Podge "matte" finish)
• paper plate or paint pan to pour glue in
• a wide brush
• a small piece of cardboard or thin scrap wood
• exacto knife
• light weight sandpaper
• a brayer (or something to smooth the paper with, like an old credit card)

Step 1:

Using the top edge/corner of the paper, line it up on your drawer front and put a small piece of painters tape to hold it in place

Step 2:

fold the paper along the bottom edge of the drawer to create a crease

Step 3:

 Unfold paper and cut along the crease as evenly as possible, measure it again and trim if needed

Step 4:

Pour some of your glue onto a paper plate or in a plastic painters pan. If you're doing a large project, pour in small amounts as you go, so that the glue doesn't dry out too much in the process

Step 5:

Liberally apply the glue to the surface and also to the back of the paper, making sure that you get it in all of the corners.  This part is very important, areas where you miss applying glue may come back to haunt you later by bubbling or wrinkling.  If doing a large area, this part should be done in small sections, making it easier to work with and prevent wrinkling

Step 6:

Place paper on top and smooth with brayer.  If you work quickly, and have applied enough glue, you should be able to reposition the paper and pull out any creases or bubbles as you go

Then, repeat steps 5 and 6 for each section of the surface, smoothing it out as you go.  I always place a small piece of thin scrap wood that I saved from a shelf I removed in a cabinet to place on top of the part that is finished, that way I can apply the glue on the back of the paper, without it getting on top of the completed sections

Step 7:

Once the entire drawer front (or whatever surface you are doing) has been glued down, use your fingers and the brayer to smooth out the entire paper and "push" all of the excess glue out from underneath the paper, then wipe the edges. Make sure that all of the excess glue is out, otherwise it will take a really long time to try and become kind of "lumpy"

Step 8:

While the paper/glue is still wet, use your finger to find the holes for the knobs/pulls and take an exacto knife to cut out the areas.  This part is a lot easier to do when the glue is still wet, once it has dried and hardened

Step 9:
This could be the hardest step....but you just wait! Wait until the glue/paper has dried completely before going on to anything else! I usually let it sit overnight; if you put your hand on top and it still feels kind of cool to the touch, it's probably not dry yet!

Step 10: 

If you have any edges that are uneven, because let's be honest, its really hard to cut paper to fit some things, you can use a really light grade sandpaper and sand down the edges until they are smooth and in an even line.  I also like to sand around the edges just to blend the paper in with the piece and get a more natural look, so that the lines are so harsh and it kind of flows together!

Step 11:
Brush on more glue to the top of the paper...and wait again! Once that is dry, sand it very lightly, and apply a 3rd coat of glue if needed.  If you are doing something on a surface that will get a lot of use, such as a table top, I definitely recommend at least 3 coats of the glue, just to make sure everything is protected well!

Step 12:

The finished product!!

So, the question is.....What are you going to decoupage now?!?

It's been a year! and "What Color Is That?!" Vol. 2

Ok...so I'm a week late on this post, but I have to commemorate that it's been a whole year since I started my Etsy shop!!
I "opened" for business October 19, 2012, and made my first Etsy sale by Oct. 20th with this little cabinet:

What started as a fun hobby, and a way to fill my time while Sam was deployed, has turned into a second full time job (but still very fun!), and I'm excited to say that hopefully by this time next year I'll be doing Furniture Alchemy full time:-)  We're still working out the details, and it's not 100% by any means at this point, but things are looking promising, and I'm excited about new possibilities!

Now that that's out of the way, here's a quick "episode" of "What color is that?!" Volume 2!
If you recall way back in August I did the first volume of this series, on Annie Sloan Greek Blue:
http://www.furniturealchemy.blogspot.com/2013/08/what-color-is-that-vol-1.html

Today, we're still in the blue family, but a much different color, Annie Sloan "Aubusson Blue"!

 In person, it comes out as a rich grey-ish, almost teal like, navy....one of my newest favorite colors in her line of Chalk Paints! It is particularly nice with a glaze or dark wax finish, and really creates depth to the color.

Here's a few pieces I've done this year in Aubusson Blue:

This was the first time I used the color, and paired with a silver wax, it is gorgeous!

Next, I used it on this antique secretary, and slightly lightened the color with some "Old White" for the stencil on the inside

On this bar cabinet with a dark glaze, it turned out more of a true Navy, very classic color!

Finally, here's Snickers and Luna wishing everyone a very scary Halloween!

**They had a little trouble decide who should wear which costume :-)

Stripped and Flipped!

Last weekend I bought a dresser that needed a lot of help....and by a lot, I mean, so much that I was really questioning my purchase! I even posted this picture of it to facebook, wondering if I'd lost my mind!

Yikes!

So, as you can see, the veneer is completely shot.  I often get pieces in with cracked or chipped veneer, and have learned some tricks for repairing it, but usually I don't have to remove it all, so I knew this would be quite a process.  However, when I was standing in the thrift store where I found it (for $20!!), contemplating for no less than 20 minutes on whether or not to buy it, I noticed the wood underneath the veneer was really gorgeous, and decided to just go for it.  It was structurally sound, and the only issue was the veneer and the broken cabinet door, so I hauled her straight home and couldn't wait to get started!

Materials Needed:

• a great piece of furniture (of course!)
• chisel and hammer for removing veneer
• heavy duty sandpaper
• screwdriver
• Your choice of paint (mine was Annie Sloan's "Graphite")
• Rustoleum Decorative Glaze and some old cloths for wiping
• brushes
• Satin Polyacrylic for a finish coat
• stencils of your choice! I got mine at Michael's, they are Martha Stewart's silkscreen stencils.

I started ripping veneer off the next day.  Fortunately, most of the veneer on the sides and drawer fronts was so loose already that it came right off, but for those stubborn pieces, I was able to use a paint scraper and a hammer and sort of "chisel" it off.  The wood on the sides wasn't the same solid, lovely oak as what was on the top and drawers, so I knew it would have to be at least partially painted, but I really wanted to try to salvage the tops and drawer fronts to re-stain.

After about 30 minutes of trying to pry the veneer off of the top, using all kinds of methods that I read about online without much result, when I remembered a refinishing tip I'd read just the other day....when having difficulty removing badly damaged veneer from the top of a dresser, take off the top and flip it over! So, I immediately called in for reinforcements (aka my fiance, Sam) and he was able to pry the top off pretty quick and we flipped it and reattached it with a few nails along the side and some new screws on the bottom (the original ones were so rusty we couldn't even get them back in!)

Once we got everything stripped, sanded, and flipped, this is what she looked like:

better already!

I had purchased a small can of stain I was planning on using, but to be honest, I hate staining. It's smelly, messy, and I've never quite gotten the hang of it, which is why I usually stick to painting. So I had a can of Rustoleum Decorative Glaze, and was curious to see what would happen if I used it on the bare wood. I took one of the drawers out to test it on the inside first, and used a cloth to rub it on...

Inside of drawer before

During

and after!

I loved the results so I went ahead and did the drawer fronts and top to match, and the color turned out beautiful and just what I was hoping for! It was equally as messy as stain, but a lot less "fume-y" and seemed more predictable/easier to work with.
I'd already decided I wanted to do a dark color and went with Annie Sloan "Graphite" with some distressing.

Removed the cabinet door and painted the inside of the cubby, did some distressing and stenciling on the corners of the drawers; then added some corner stencils on the top.
The only problem I encountered with the "flipping" of the top, was that there was a line around the edge where it was attached that didn't seem to want to sand down. So I ended up painting a border around the edge to mask the discoloration, and it blended the corner stencils even better.

After all was said and done, The glaze and paint dried for a day, then I used two coats of satin Minwax polyurethane finish coat, with one day of drying time in between (still have one more coat to go on the top, for a little extra protection), used the same poly on the hardware to clean it up and shine it a bit, and she was ready!

 

This little piece stole my heart, and I decided I couldn't part with her, so she's going to find a place in my bedroom as soon as everything is nice and dry :-)

Thanks to everyone for the support and encouragement on this piece, and all of my wonderful Furniture Alchemy Facebook fans for liking and sharing the pictures, I got around 100 new followers just in the past 24 hours! Just another reason to keep this little dresser around, I think she brings me good luck!

**Edit** Just wanted to show everyone what I did with the cabinet door that was broken....nothing goes to waste at Furniture Alchemy!! :-)

Added some hooks and now we have a rustic key/leash station/message board next to our door!

Boardwalk Empire and a 1920's Dresser

Considering its been more than a month since my last post, you all can see how busy it's been! I currently have around 12 orders place for custom pieces, so the "furniture factory" is in overdrive right now, but I so love it! I've also gone back to my "real" job, since my last post, teaching 7th and 8th graders, so needless to say, I'm exhausted!

This week I wanted to do a "before" and "after" blog about one of my favorite pieces of late, a 1920's style dresser that I picked up at a thrift store a few months back and recently sold. Have I mentioned I LOVE the 1920's?!?

Here she is before, in her well-loved state:

Sorry for the ridiculously bad picture, but my storage unit is super crowded right now, its hard to get a good angle on anything!

So, I had her listed for a few months available as a custom order, and there were no takers.  Sometimes its hard to envision what a piece can look like once it complete, especially when their "before" is pretty shabby and not so chic.

I brought her home and decided to do a custom mix of Annie Sloan chalk paints to create a creamy, vintage shade of white.  I mixed pure white with country grey and a tad bit of Arles yellow to create the shade.
A few coats of paint, some light distressing, and a glossy finish coat later, here she is:

 

A true 1920's beauty, if you ask me! I sold it within the week to a local buyer, and I have been trying to track down a similar piece ever since, to keep for myself :-)

As a side note, while we're on the subject of the 1920's, which is by far my favorite era furniture and style-wise; one of my favorite show's HBO's Boardwalk Empire has finally returned and my Sunday nights have been made whole again! I think I may have been a flapper in my past life, and long to visit a speakeasy (I hear there's one in Old Town Alexandria, anyone ever checked it out?!)

I also found this Pinterest board full of 1920's style decor and style:

What Color is that?! Vol. 1

Greek Blue! 

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint "Greek Blue" is a very specific color, in my opinion. It is absolutely gorgeous, but it is just as the name describes; truly reminiscent of those gorgeous blue Greek rooftops:

You can read the official description of the color here on the Annie Sloan website

  

I've used it only on a few pieces; sparingly in the first piece, layered under "Louis Blue" on the top of this little end table, with the bottom in French Linen

Then, I used it not so sparingly on a custom ordered china cabinet in Greek Blue with the inside in Country Grey:

I love those two pieces, I mean, look at that china cabinet! But I really wanted to do a piece that felt true to the color.  I recently found this little piece in a thrift store that I frequent:

 And at that same thrift store, I saw a large collection of those gorgeous vintage blue and white ceramic vases, kind of like these:

Photo Credit: http://www.amandacarolathome.com/2012/01/dining-room-for-spring.html

So I used those vases for a little inspiration, and once I painted the top of it in the Greek blue, I knew how I wanted it to look. I used "Old White" on the base of the piece, some light distressing, and did a scroll pattern and damask stenciling pattern on the cabinet panels and drawers. Here's how it turned out:

So...with all of that being said, I'm in love with Greek Blue!

What color would you like to see featured in the next blog post?

Only 2 more weeks...

...until I have to go back to the real world of teaching middle school! ahhh! Summer has literally flown by, being so busy doing custom orders, I feel like I haven't even stopped to enjoy the fact that I've been able to do furniture full time all summer. Until I start to see those "back to school" commercials on tv and it brings me back to reality; soon I'll be back to the old routine of teaching 7th and 8th grade and running Furniture Alchemy. sigh.

This little piece caught a lot of attention this week, and rightfully so(in my humble opinion), it's super cute! It was featured on "Furniture Flippin'" and "Cutting Edge Stencils"

Thanks to all of that, I'm nearing 300 "likes" on my facebook page!  Make sure to stop by and say hi!
http://www.facebook.com/FurnitureAlchemy

 In order to keep it short and sweet, here are a few highlights from the past week:

1. One of my military trunks was purchased by a tv/film producer for FX and Comedy Central so that was super exciting!
2. I'm waging war against my shipping provider. I will win all battles, and the war.
3. I arrived home yesterday to find two strangers in my apartment.  Property manager neglected to mention to me that they would be coming by for air conditioner maintenance; and I nearly shanked the poor fellows. Then called and yelled at the property manager. I don't think it will happen again.
4. I'm trying really hard to come up with a #4....only having 3 items on my list makes it seem pretty dull; but i'm at a loss, so I guess we'll just stick with 3 highlights.

 Back to painting! Happy Tuesday everyone!

A lost treasure returns!

July has been busy and the closer we get to August, the more I start dreading going back to work.  Teaching 7th and 8th grade can be very rewarding and I love teaching; but it is also tiresome, frustrating, and it means I have to start getting up and showering again in the mornings.  ugh.

So, I wanted to share a little story in this weeks blog about when my mom came to visit. My mom lives in Mississippi, where I'm originally from, and she came up for 6 days a few weeks ago. It was great having her here, and she even learned some of the furniture refinishing trade and has gone back home and chalk painted her very first table!!

On her last day here, she wanted to stop at Home Goods before we took her to the airport that night.  We'd been in a few days earlier and I saw a little cabinet that I really wanted to go by my door, to replace the one I had there.  It pains me to buy retail furniture, I always so "oh, I'll just do something for myself" but then I never have time to do my own pieces.  So we went back to Home Goods and she insisted on buying the cabinet for me, and I just couldn't say no, it was such a cute piece!

When we got back home, I decided to clean out the junk that was in the cabinet I had there before and put the good stuff in the new one.  As I was digging through the pile of dog sweaters that are way to small for my dogs now and I don't know why I've held on to them (I guess its like a mother keeping her children's baby clothes:-) I found a lost treasure!

Back in the winter, I lost a diamond ring that my fiancee had given me last year for our anniversary (not my engagement ring, but an equally gorgeous ring!) and I cried for days over it. and there, in the pile of dog sweaters, I found my ring!

My new cabinet and my old ring returned!

I was elated because I'd only just recently resolved to myself that it was gone forever and I should stop looking for it, and there it was! Who knows how long it would have been before I found it (if ever) if my mom hadn't have insisted on buying this little cabinet for me at Home Goods!

Aaaand, I used the old cabinet to organize my work room, which is now, for the first time ever, in a somewhat orderly state!

I finally have a place for things!

Flea Market Bust and the Holy Grail

Since its summer, and I've been able to work on pieces during the week a lot more, Saturday mornings has now become "picking time"... My favorite time to go out to flea markets, estate sales, and thrift stores to sift through items!
My fiancee, who is officially part of Furniture Alchemy now (I think I've converted him!) were looking around for flea markets to go to yesterday, and decided to go to the Gaithersburg fairgrounds flea market.  Gaithersburg is quite a hike from Alexandria, but we decided to check it out!

It was definitely a bust. There were maybe 12 vendors, selling mostly baby clothes, socks,  and electronics, not quite what we were looking for.
There was a bright spot, however, I did find this vintage Lemonade clock and have it on sale now in my Etsy shop!

10 minutes later, we were over the Gaithersburg flea market, so we decided to hit up the Habitat for Humanity Resale shop nearby.  There's one in Alexandria, and I've found a few things there, but its always really picked over and kind of hit or miss, but thought we'd check this one out anyway.
This was NOT the case in Gaithersburg! It was like finding the Holy Grail of resale shops! Jammed full of so many items that my poor little eyes could barely take it all in :-)

I got these really Spanish ship bookends:

 
and this darling French Provincial vanity:

So, for today's math lesson:  Bookends + Vanity =  

one happy Sheila!

In other news, I was featured on Furniture Flippin' last week!You can check out the post here, and leave some love: http://furnitureflippin.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-chest-no-less.html