Friday, November 02, 2012

Upcycling Wood Into Home Decor

Hey all,
Thank God it's Friday! What do you have planned for the weekend? I have photo shoots booked both Saturday and Sunday but I'm hoping to get some more refurbishing and upcycling done on some awesome pieces I picked up at a garage sale last weekend.

Today I want to show you how I've dressed up a corner of our dining room Shabby Chic style with just a piece of wood and an old dresser/sideboard.

While having a coffee out our backyard the other day I found this piece of wood laying on a pile ready for the firewood box. Instant love! I could see a lot of potential in this piece...can you?

Already mid project with an old dresser Michael had bought home years ago...


...I thought this would be the perfect piece to finish off the corner of the dining room I was working on and hang above this dresser.
So...out came the trusty white paint and brushes and of course...the sandpaper.

The wood had a beautiful, natural texture that I wanted to keep so I didn't sand it back to start with. I also left the nails as they were to use as hooks when the piece was finished so I can hang little pretties from them.
Once I painted it with two coats I sanded it back to reveal the nails and some of the natural grain.

I've been playing around with a fabulous new technique I've learnt making pieces of wood into great, vintage and Shabby Chic home decor. It's so, so easy and looks great!
I've already show you something I've made with this technique but didn't tell you how to do it. Remember this?

I made this from a scrap piece of wood for my laundry using the exact same technique!

YOU'LL NEED:
A piece of scrap wood
White paint (it should work on other light coloured paint as well)
A printer and printer paper
A rub-on tool or a paddle pop stick
Sticky tape

HOW TO:
Step 1: Paint your piece of wood and set it aside to dry.
Step 2: Choose the graphic on your computer you'd like to transfer to your wood.
Step 3: Open your graphic in a photo editing program and REVERSE the image. Make sure your printer is set to print in BLACK. Print your image on to normal printer paper.
Step 4: Carefully (and I mean CAREFULLY) place your graphic face down on your piece of wood. Once you're happy with the placement adhere the paper to the wood with sticky tape.
TIP: The ink will smudge if you move it around too much so be gentle!!
Step 5: Gently rub over the graphic with a rub on tool or a paddle pop...something with a flat edge, not sharp. This will release the ink from the paper to the piece of wood. Go over the whole image thoroughly until you are happy with the look.
Step 6: OPTIONAL - If you would like your transferred graphic to be a little darker you can carefully go over the graphic with a Sharpie pen as I have done with the Laundry sign. For a softer, more vintage look leave it as it is.

You're only limited to your own imagination using this technique. I've almost finished refurbishing a beautiful old dresser with some gorgeous graphics that I can't wait to share with you.
But for now...back to the old piece of wood I found out the back!

Using the above technique I transferred the word LOVE to a bottom panel of the wood. I left this untouched as I was after the softer, vintage look.

As the piece I found has an awesome centrepiece hole I wanted to make something sweet to sit in there. I've always got a million and one photo frames lying around so I grabbed a wooden one and gave it the same treatment as the wood, a lick of paint and a sand. I grabbed some black cardstock and wrote the word LIVE on it and framed it. Simple...but very sweet.
TIP: No need for messy blackboard paint for small projects like this...simply use black cardstock and a white crayon. It gives exactly the same effect and is MUCH cheaper!

I also have a million and one crocheted doilies in my craft stash so to finish the piece off I made a gorgeous doily bunting to hang from the bottom and a cute hessian bunting (that I made from an old hessian sack) to hang from the top.

I had two sweet little wooden birds I'd bought from a shop ages ago so I hung these from the bottom of the piece from nails that were there originally.

So now I have a gorgeous piece of shabby Chic wall art to hang above my refurbished dresser:


Now...the dresser. Apart from the handle being broke this was in great condition. So all I wanted to do was give it a paint and sand it back. I painted it a very light shade of green and sanded it quite heavily:

I'm on the look out for more pretties to sit on the shelves...who knows what I'll find :)
I've managed to brighten up a corner of our dining room for next to nothing.


COST
Dresser - FREE
Wooden piece - FREE
Paint - Had on hand
Doily bunting - Made from items in my craft stash
Hessian bunting - Made from old sack my husband had

Have a look around your house, yard and husbands garage...you never know what you might find.

Hope you have a great weekend.
Sharryn
xx

4 comments:

Sandra said...

wow what a great job and it adds so much personality to a corner in your home. Can't wait to see what little trinkets or treasures you find to fill the shelves.

Monique said...

Gosh Sharryn, this is beautiful! I love how you've altered this - it is so inspiring!

Lizzy Hill said...

Just back from OS & HAD to say this is sooooo brilliant I can barely believe what you've achieved...totally A-MAZING...can come decorate my joint any time!!!

Midnightscrapper said...

OMG!!! the dresser!!! that is just mind blowing cool. Im going op shopping now to find an old dresser :-)

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