Decoupage cutting boards is very popular due to the low cost of the necessary materials and the simplicity of work in this technique. Such a product looks good in the interior of the kitchen, as the design is selected individually, for any style. Boards can be used not only for decoration, but also cut into them products, if the varnish coating is of sufficient thickness.
How to choose the right workpiece
The first step in preparing for the decoupage of a cutting board is the choice of a workpiece. It is very important to choose the right material for the job. The time that the product will serve the owner, how smoothly the motive lies and whether it will look neat, largely depends on its quality. If the item is decorated as a gift to a certain person, before starting work, it is advisable to find out what style his kitchen is decorated in order to choose the right pattern and shape.
Varieties of board materials
Boards are wooden and plywood. Wooden are divided into those made of solid wood and glued beams. Plywood boards have one important advantage: their moisture capacity is several times lower than that of wood. The very structure of wood is designed to absorb moisture from the soil and the environment, therefore, items made from it can not be kept in the sink and in other moist places, otherwise they will swell and lose their shape. If the decoupage of a cutting board is done as a gift, it is worth warning the material presented about this feature.
Features of plywood and solid wood planks
Plywood products last much longer. Solid wood boards are almost never found in mass production, so they can be purchased only at various needlework fairs. They are made from linden, birch, oak and other trees in Central Russia. Oak is considered optimal for decoupage of a cutting board - it is durable and less hygroscopic than other breeds. It is undesirable to choose pine wood for work, as it has a specific odor and emits tar. The advantage of solid wood boards is that, unlike glued beams, they will never go apart at the seams. When choosing a glued beam, you also need to focus on the saw, bearing in mind that the surface will bend in the direction of the annual rings. Plywood is better to choose 1 grade and a thickness of more than 1 cm.
Major wood defects
It is important to keep in mind that wood waste is left on cutting boards that are unsuitable for construction. In order to choose a material that will last for decades, it is very important to be able to navigate in the quality of wood, options for cutting and the basic characteristics of wood.
Various defects can be present in the boards from the array, which are usually removed from the glued beam:
- frosty cracks;
- wormholes;
- an overview
- blue
- risks;
- adhesive pockets;
- core;
- knots.
If the wood is not properly dried, cracks and rot occur. It is not necessary to take boards with wormholes, since such a surface is very difficult to level. Ungrown and rotten knots are an indicator of poor quality wood.
Features of sawing wood
The quality of the board also largely depends on the cut. Radial is considered the best when annual rings run perpendicularly. It is taken from the middle of the log, because the product will not bend. The most unfortunate option - a tangential cut - is a board from that part of the trunk that is closer to the bark. The farther the material is taken from the center of the tree, the less suitable it is for decoration. It is best to choose a tree with a high density: birch, oak, ash. Aspen is well suited for threaded boards. Another important indicator is the moisture content of freshly chopped wood. It depends on whether cracks will form during drying. According to this indicator, birch is also the leader - it is the driest.
Basic materials for decoupage
For decoupage, napkins or decoupage cards are most often used, but for cutting boards it is best to use prints, independently choosing the right size and pattern. In this case, you can completely cover the entire surface without aligning the motive and drowning it. You can glue on anything: PVA glue or decoupage is suitable. Paints for painting should be chosen so that they can withstand sanding. Various acrylic varnishes, including building varnishes, are used to protect the surface. Aerosol varnish can create smudges.
Decoupage cutting board for beginners
For beginners, still unfamiliar with the decoupage technique, you can start with a quick way to decorate a cutting board. To do this, you will need:
- wooden plank;
- roller;
- yacht varnish;
- brush;
- scissors;
- linseed oil;
- gouache paints;
- White Spirit;
- a print printed on office paper;
- sandpaper of various grain sizes.
Before you start decorating cutting boards in the decoupage style, the surface needs to be leveled with large and small sand paper. This will allow a better drawing. When using the classical decoupage technique, most of the time is spent on drying the varnish and primer layers, and after each layer the surface is processed by emery. Also, if there are small dents on the surface of the board, a layer of latex or acrylic putty is applied, and then the board is primed with acrylic paint in several layers until a smooth white surface is obtained. But the use of yacht varnish allows you to speed up this process and avoid additional drying.
Do-it-yourself quick decoupage of cutting boards consists of the following steps:
- We are preparing a print. We cover it with a layer of varnish so that the base is well saturated.
- Yacht varnish dries for about 1-4 hours. During this period of time, the brush must be placed in white spirit so that it does not dry out. After drying, we process the surface of the board with emery.
- At the next stage, we begin to apply the motive. Cut it out and apply a layer of varnish on the surface of the board.
- We apply the drawing, straighten it and roll it with a roller, moving from the center to the edges. We try to fix the corners well.
- Make a hole in the print with scissors and a brush. We cut a hole with scissors, and push the handle of the brush inward and scroll.
- Erase the edges, removing excess paper. We do not touch the edges of the hole yet. Dry the surface for several hours.
- When the board dries, we remove the excess paper in the hole with emery and again process the surface.
- We paint the background and paint the ends to match the motive. You can use gouache for this.
- Dry the board again and cover the surface with varnish, after adding a little white spirit to it.
- After the board has dried, we again treat it with sandpaper and apply the last layer of varnish. Dry, remove all smudges of varnish from the working surface with emery and soak it with linseed oil.
After such processing, the board can be washed and used to cut products. In the photo, the decoupage of chopping boards made in this way is indistinguishable from the “classic” one.