Do-it-yourself furniture decoration helps to save on the purchase of a new table, chest of drawers or other interior items. Thanks to simple tricks, you can create unique things that will only be with you. Furniture acquires individual features and adds style and brightness to the home. We suggest you learn how to do a decoupage chair with your own hands.
Decoupage furniture
The purpose of decoupage is that with the help of paper pictures the object acquires a new and vibrant life. The technique itself is a selection of appropriate drawings and gluing them to things with special fixing solutions.
You can decorate in the style of decoupage dishes, boxes, decor items and much more. Recently, it has also become popular to decorate any furniture in this way: tables, dressers, wardrobes, chairs and so on. This technique of decor allows you to refrain from buying new furniture and bring personality to your home design. And the decoupage of chairs also helps to diversify the interior.
Necessary tools and materials
The list of necessary tools and materials in order to decoupage a wooden chair is as follows:
- several brushes of different widths and densities;
- adhesive for decoupage or PVA;
- pictures (napkins, illustrations from magazines, wallpapers and so on);
- paint (acrylic or for woodwork);
- pencils or markers (may come in handy if you need to draw some elements of the image);
- varnish (decoupage or regular);
- primer;
- sandpaper;
- wood putty;
- scissors;
- Scotch.
As additional materials, various decorative elements may be required: sequins, rhinestones, shells, buttons, ribbons and so on.
Decoupage steps
The decoupage of chairs takes place in much the same way as decorating other items. The process itself consists of the following stages:
- thinking over the future decor, the idea of decoupage;
- preparation of the surface of the chair;
- background preparation;
- work with a pattern;
- decor (application of paints, additional elements, painting);
- varnishing.
The final result of the work depends on the quality of each stage. Therefore, it is better not to rush, do everything carefully and wait for the paints and varnish to dry completely.
Idea for decoupage
Decoupage of chairs (see photo of ideas above) can be performed both with the aim of completely covering the surface, or partially. That is, you can decorate the whole seat, back and legs with pictures. But such an appearance will be too overloaded. It is better to dwell on a partial decor and apply the image only on the seat or back. You can distribute small elements throughout the surface of the chair.
Think in advance about the themes of future design, and also look for relevant pictures. At this stage, you also need to choose a shade of paint suitable for the illustrations. After all, you need to make a background.
When the design option is ready, you can begin to work.
Preparing a decoupage chair
If you decorate an unprepared chair, then the decor will lie ugly and will not last long. The same thing will happen with poorly crafted furniture. Therefore, this stage of work must be given due attention.
First, the chair must be sanded, that is, remove the old varnish. To do this, use fine sandpaper. If the varnish is poorly washed, then you will need to use a grinding machine. It is better to work with her outdoors in a special mask. The varnish is removed from all over the chair. Then the chair is wiped with a dry cloth to get rid of dust.
Now apply a primer. Further, it is desirable to cover the surface with a layer of putty. This is necessary to hide scratches, roughness and roughness of the chair. You can not completely cover the surface, but only areas with flaws. When the putty is dry, the chair is covered again with a primer.
Background preparation
Paint must be applied to the primer. So she will lie better and will not slam off. The number of colors depends on your idea. You can cover the back and seat with different colors, highlight the legs and other elements of the chair with a different shade. There are many options. Remember that the primary color can be any.
Paint over the entire surface of the chair, leaving the places where the picture will be glued empty. These areas need to be painted over with light color (white or beige). This is done so that the picture is better visible. After all, work occurs with a thin layer of paper, and in 99% of cases, dark ink is visible through it. From this, the view becomes not the one that was conceived at the beginning of the work.
After the background has dried, you can start working with illustrations.
We apply pictures
Prepare your pictures: napkins, clippings and pages from magazines, pieces of wallpaper, prints. As stated above, any paper illustration will do to decoupage the chair.
Master class on drawing pictures:
- Cut out the necessary decor elements from paper. For example, you are planning to decorate the chair with roses, then you need to cut the flowers along the contour and get rid of excess paper.
- Make a thin layer of the picture. If this is a napkin, then remove the extra layers, if this is plain paper, then glue the adhesive tape pieces on the back side several times and remove it. Do everything carefully so as not to damage the illustration itself.
- Pour decoupage glue into the container. If you use PVA, dilute it a little with water.
- Attach a suitable picture to the desired area of the chair and cover it with glue on top.
- So apply all the pictures.
Before decoupage the chairs, allow the illustrations to dry completely.
The final stage of decoupage furniture
To decoupage old chairs became a work of art, you need to tinker with little things. For example, you can add decorative elements such as rhinestones, beads, ribbons, buttons, and so on to the back and legs. But the best thing is to work on the picture itself and the background:
- Take pencils or markers and draw outlines.
- Take paints and thin brushes, finish the background, contours, shadows on the picture.
- Use fine sandpaper and scuff on the edges of the chair.
- Add gilding and silver to the bulges of the chair.
- Walk with a wide brush, after dipping it a little in the dark color, if the chair is light - along the edges of the back and seat. This will also create a worn effect.
Try to do everything possible so that the picture and background are one. Then the end result will be amazing. If the picture stands out, a feeling of incompleteness is created and the whole elegant look is lost. Therefore, the edges of the illustration are best lightly treated with a sponge dipped in the same paint as the background color.
To complete the decoupage of the chairs, cover it completely with varnish. When everything is dry, products can be used. Thanks to the varnish, the drawing is not damaged during operation and the chair is easily exposed to wet cleaning.
Do not be afraid to experiment. Sometimes the best work is created thanks to unexpected decisions. Over time, when your skills in decoupage technique increase, you can use additional materials to expand the design possibilities (for example, craquelure lacquer to create decorative cracks).