A Junk-yard nightstand gets a face lift & we're all hooting with joy!
Who-Who-Whoooo's Furniture is Getting an Update?....Mine!!
So, there I was just minding my own business, when I heard the sentence that no mom of a preteen daughter wants to hear, "Mom, my room is lame. Can we redo it?" Of course I don't want to... but... she's right. It's not particularly fabulous. However, I did not necessarily want to go purchase new furniture, after all....we'll have to do this all again in a few years.So, I decided to work with what we had and bring it up to her standards....which means....preteen- hip and funky. So, once again, I turned to Trading Phrases for some inspiration. After looking through the huge selection we decided on some super-cute and trendy owl decals and coordinating leaves to go with the Ikea duvet I had recently purchased & decided to bring some fun colors into her room by making this a multi color night stand. Since I was using the decals as a stensil it didn't matter what color I chose, but I measured the night-stand to ensure the owl would fit on the front with plenty of room. I started by disassembling the night stand and stripping off all of the old layers of paint. This piece was an old flea market find, so there were lots of layers to strip and sand. This was, by far, the worst part of the entire project, I was happy for the next step which requires much less sweat & elbow grease. Next, I painted the areas where I wanted the design to show through. I wanted to use multiple colors for the leaf design, so I alternated blue and yellow. The project looks horrible at this stage, but trust me, it will make sense in the end.
After the accent colors dried, I placed our cute little owls and leaf decals on the furniture. (I know....I know....It looks hideous. Bear with me.) Finally, I covered all of the surfaces with the main color (which in our case was a bright and bold green). After two coats of the sassy green paint were dry.... I removed all of the decals.....and.....TA DA!!! My preteen is happy! My wallet is happy! And, I get to feel the satisfaction of being creative!! Plus, we recycled! Yay! She loves it- which hopefully will last a few years until we get to do this all over again. Thank you Trading Phrases for helping me once again!! P.S. Stay tuned.....the bed is definitely going to get a Trading Phrases makeover very very soon.
P.S. If you do a craft with our decals and write us a how-to with photos we'll give you something super special in return! :) About the Author
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