Hi Everyone
So todays project began when I came across an old broken down bookcase that someone had discarded.
Do I or don’t I attempt to upscale and restore it?
Well, why on earth not? I’ll have hours of fun and then I can decide whether to trash it or not.
Step 1 was to clean it, fix it with a hammer and a few nails and then paint it with white chalk paint.
After a coat of paint it already looked a whole lot better.
I had no idea what to do next, so I looked through my stash of FurniStik’s and serviettes and got inspired – why not do a kiddies bookcase? Just understand, I have no grandchildren, in fact I never really come across kids, so this kiddies project is off course and totally foreign to me. I would generally label it “forbidden territory”, but the elephant and giraffe FurniStik’s are so cute and awesome I got hooked.
I chose some paper napkins with similar colours to the Furnistik’s and decoupaged the sides and top of the bookcase. I haven’t used stripes before, and was concerned about noticeable join marks, but I didn’t let that put me off. Handle the problem if and when it arises.
When that was completed, I chose similar chalk paint colours to paint the inside of the shelves. I wasn’t sure whether there would be a difference if I started off each shelf with a different colour, but found that made little difference. I blended the 3 chosen colours by spraying water after each coat and using a soft brush to blend – an easy but very effective exercise.
Now for the fun part.
I placed the elephant and florals of the Eli FurniStik on one side panel, and because I had so much space left, I filled in the rest of the panel with stencilling which complimented the theme. This served a double purpose – it blended the graphics and added colour and design to blank spaces as well as hiding join marks of the decoupage.
Once I was happy with the side of the bookcase, I painted the entire panel with 2 coats of Furniseal. Wow – it was looking great. So I repeated the process with the giraffe FurniStik on the other side and the bunny rabbit FurniStik on the top.
The stencilling with blue chalk paint was a great way to bring everything together, really prettied up the project and the final coat of Furniseal was applied to the entire bookcase. Now I just need to find a child who will enjoy this piece.
I spent one and a half days having fun – loved every second, and I’ll never be fearful of old broken down furniture again ☺
Products used in this project:
1. Chalk Paint – Colours: Delmar, Persian Lilac, Duck Egg & Purple Stone
2. Decoupage
3. Mesh Stencils
4. FurniSeal
5. FurniStik: G-Raff, Nelly, Happy Hop
6. Scraper
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