Do-it-yourself chest decoupage

Most often, they get rid of old things, but what if after repair you find that your favorite chest of drawers does not fit into the interior at all, and buying a new one is not at all your plan? Then a fashionable technique - decoupage will come to your aid. With it, you can, with a minimum of effort, create a spectacular stylish thing that will suit you.

Old Soviet-made dressers are distinguished by their classic design, impeccable quality and sophisticated lines. Like any other furniture, over time they lose their presentable appearance - the paints fade, the varnish starts to peel, cracks and abrasions appear. A decoupage technique, which represents a strong and solid interior item, helps to decoupage. decoration with all kinds of paper and linen pictureswhich are often combined with special effects.

Many people think that decoupage is a French technique, but few people know that in fact, her homeland is the eastern part of Siberia. A little later, this technique came to the countries of the Old World. By the way, in Italy, decoupage was considered “the work of the poor,” this direction was given the nickname because not everyone had the opportunity to decorate their home with precious stones, gold or silver, and everyone wanted to live in a beautiful house. Over time in France decoupage was elevated to the rank of art, then even the rich did not disdain jewelry of this kind in their home.

Today, there are quite a few ways to restore the appearance of dressers - using paper and napkins, linens, aging by applying unexpected combinations of colors, imitations of surface cracking. Anyway The result will always be spectacular and luxurious.

The main advantage of the technique is a highly artistic result, which can be achieved even in the absence of a special education. This is achieved thanks to the main distinguishing feature of decoupage - drawing on the basis of an already finished image. For these purposes, there are a huge number of diverse options with beautiful drawings, namely:

• decoupage cards;
• the cloth;
• napkins;
• Photo;
• stencils;
• wallpaper;
• scrapbooking paper;
• newspaper clippings;
• pictures from magazines.

Every year new styles, effects and devices are added - all this gives reason to assume that decoupage will be in demand for a long time.

For each stage of decoupage, special materials and tools are used. They may vary depending on the type of surface being treated.

In order to make the surface more smooth and textureduse a fairly wide range of tools.

You can paint the surface of the dresser in a matter of minutes. Besides acrylic compounds often used in decoupage water based enamels or the most common enamels, some craftsmen successfully apply gouache, tempera or pastel.

Before applying the paint, the surface must be prepared by coating with a primer, it allows the paint to lie more evenly and more firmly adhere to the base. Primers can be very different - on the basis of putty, adhesives, acrylic varnishes, universal primers are also available for sale, which are suitable for any substrate. And also need alcohol for degreasing the surface and putty to eliminate minor defects.

This is a very fashionable effect in recent years, which is widely used in decoupage. In this case, it’s best to take acrylic paints that mimic a metallic coating, they are applied with the most ordinary brush. In addition to metallic paints, they are very popular. pearlescent compounds, and super-adhesive thin foil, it is applied using special glue.

Most often, special decoupage glue is used for gluing, although many glue the picture to the base using PVA. However, it does not provide the necessary leveling effect. The difference between the inclined surface and the base can be noticeable if a picture of dense material is used. In addition, some craftsmen stick the necessary fragments clerical glue, glue stick and even egg white.

To create interesting decorative effects, use such special compositions as:

• patina of different shades;
• special varnishes for artificial aging;
• powder for applying shadows;
• pastel;
• bulk gels;
• paint for ceramics;
• sparkles, glitter;
• structural pastes.

In recent years, creation techniques have been in great demand. crackle effect. For the design of cracks on the surface, the set of materials is significantly limited - only suitable here water-based decorative varnishes.

In order to keep the created decor as long as possible, use varnish. It can be a special varnish for decoupage or construction. It is applied in several layers to achieve a perfectly smooth surface. In addition, it creates a waterproof layer, protecting the chest of drawers from adverse external factors.

The choice of style for chest decoupage is limited only by one's own imagination. For children, these can be images of any fairy-tale heroes. Geometric patterns and lines are considered a universal option, but most often old dressers are restored in the Provence style. A distinctive feature of furniture made in this style is the color palette - it is customary to design a chest of drawers in white, blue, olive and pale yellow shades, and as decorative elements use lavender, sunflowers, an olive branch and other symbols of Provence.

Small life hack: If you want your chest of drawers to look original, apply a few splashes of lavender color on it. If you complement them with applications with lavender motifs, the furniture will turn out to be truly stylish and unique. To make beautiful droplets, you can use a regular toothbrush. It must be hard, because with soft fibers, the spray will turn out to be uneven and too large.

When making a decoupage with your own hands at home, you must take into account all the rules for working with materials of different types. For example, processing smooth surfaces is significantly different from working with rough boards - here you will need surface sanding, which not only protects your hands from splinters, but also makes the surface more smooth and attractive.

Before starting the restoration of the chest of drawers, it is necessary clean all dirt, grease and old coatings. After that you should walk along the surface. sand paper. The prepared base is covered with a primer layer and painted, after which you can proceed to the most creative part of the work.

To achieve the desired stylish effect, it is necessary to produce aging of the coating. To do this, in some places (along the edges, in the corners or near the handles) an imitation of wear is created. It is best to take paints in two colors - the main background shade and a darker tone that will peek out from under it. The paint is applied step by step, adhering to the following algorithm:

• first, the chest of drawers is completely stained with dark paint and allowed to dry;
• areas where it is planned to simulate aging of the surface must be rubbed with wax or paraffin;
• then apply the main background color;
• very carefully, a little pressure on the paraffin layer, with a fine-grained emery, a thin layer of the paint of the main tone is removed;
• if desired, you can additionally use craquelure varnish, then after the composition dries up, cracks form on the surface.

Most often, decoupage cards or napkins are used for restoration. The second option will cost much cheaper, and if the result does not match the expected, it will not be so offensive. Decoupage cards are more expensive they can be performed in three versions.

• With a picture printed on thick rice paper, which has pronounced texture fibers. The option is good if the entire surface of the dresser is decorated completely.
• On very thin rice paper - such pictures look very gentle, and the borders are almost invisible. As a rule, such decor is complemented by strokes of watercolor paints, which creates the effect of art painting.
• Plain paper cards - before use, it should be divided into separate layers.To do this, a layer of varnish is applied to the front side of the image and allowed to be completely inserted, then the workpiece is lowered into water and carefully rolled up all the excess from the inside.

Regardless of the material used, the work includes the following steps:

• the image is neatly cut out;
• apply glue to the back side and fix it on the surface of the dresser;
• with the help of a soft brush for drawing, smooth out all wrinkles from the center to the edges, this can be done with a sponge or a very soft cloth;
• at the final stage, the product is covered with several layers of varnish at intervals of 1.5-3 hours until fully set;
• after the last layer has dried, you need to give the product a few more days so that the image is fixed as tightly as possible.

The following video will tell you how to make a chest decoupage with your own hands.