First of all, you don’t have to be an artist to create a work of art. You don’t have to have a pocket full of money. You don’t have to have more than a little time and some cheap paints.
You will need:
Paints (available in any craft store) for about .79 per bottle
Some cheap sponge brushes (also available in craft stores like JoAnns or Michaels or even Home Depot)
A bottle of alcohol
An empty spray bottle
Some rags
Gloves if you feel you need them
Stencils if so desired
Black Magic Marker
Clear lacquer/polyurethane sealer
A plan regarding what you want the furniture to look like.
Start watching for clean up day in your neighborhood. Picking through peoples discards isn’t all bad. You can just drive by and if there’s a piece of furniture, a table, a chair sitting out these are always easy to spot. If you aren’t in an area where the sidewalk selection isn’t available check out the Salvation Army stores, furniture resale shops and garage sales. There’s no rush. Look for smaller pieces at first, later on when you’ve had a little experience you can take on bigger projects.
If you already have a design in mind then you can pick and choose the furniture accordingly. You can do a simple scene using stencils or stickers.
For instance for a TIME OUT chair for a child you can pick up number stickers. Paint the chair a solid color.Draw a large circle for the clock face. You can use a plate to get a perfect circle. Simply outline around the plate. Stick the numbers on , write TIME OUT on the back or seat. Voila you have a great gift for a child. You can also sponge on color for a background for the clock. You can get crazy and paint each leg a different color or keep the whole chair solid colored.
Tortoise a table (or chair or cabinet).
You will need brown, black , copper and gold paint. Dab on each color willy nilly. Then take a spray bottle , fill it with Alcohol and spray the paint. It will start to run a bit into each color and you will get a tortoise shell affect. I have done an old bathroom vanity with this look and it gave the cabinet a great new updated look. This is a great way to hide a damaged table top. Seal with polyurethane sealer.
Faux Marble .
You will need white, caramel and grey paint. Paint the item with white as the base. Drip your gray and caramel color here and there and with a feather drag these drips into loose lines creating a marble look. You can add gold if you like. You can do this with black as the base and white, grey and gold as the feathering.Seal with polyurethane sealer.
This can be done with some sea sponges or even your cellulose sink sponges. Just pick two or three colors. Choose one as a base and dab away. It’s very easy to get the hang of this technique. I’ve done this with the assistance of a 5 year old.
Lettering and Pasting Designs
Magazines
Mod Podge/polyurethane sealer
Scissors
You can look through magazines and cut out pictures of interesting things, pens, clock faces, sayings, birds, bugs, butterflies and creatures of all kinds. Use Mod Podge (available in all craft stores) to make these things stick to the furniture. Imagine a chair back with a dragonfly swooping down the back or a desk with a pen, a stamp, an envelope on the surface. Maybe even a pocketwatch. Magazines are a super source of inspiring pictures. Base coat your piece of furniture and paste away.Seal with several coats of polyurethane sealer.You can base coat any piece of furniture and hand letter wonderful sayings on them. You can also buy sayings in rub on or stencils form. This is especially cute for children’s pieces. You can find nursery rhymes with the child’s name in it. Here’s an example of easy and sweet. Get a children’s book for example Nursery Rhymes.I did “The Cow Jumped Over the Moon” as a gift. I painted the chair glossy navy. I cut out pictures of the Cow, the Moon and the title “The Cow Jumped Over the Moon”. I pasted these on the chair seat and back. I painted my own cloud across the moon and stars here and there in bright yellow. On the back of the chair I put the dish and spoon. I left room for the child’s name on the back as well. The only talent this requires is being able to use glue (Mod Podge) and scissors. If you take a stroll through any craft store you will find little wooden cut outs by the dozens. I found a little cow and hung that from the chair as well as an added little touch. You could also glue this to the chair in place of the cut out from the nursery rhyme page.Seal with polyurethane sealer. Do several coats.
Shells
Paint Turquoise, Beige, White, Navy
Cut out pictures of fish, shells or beachballs
Polyurethane sealer
Paint the chair bright turquoise for the sky, sand beige for the sand and dab white for the foamy waves. Make little upside down “w”‘s for the birds in the turquoise sky using the navy paint. You can glue on beachball picture and a pail picture in the sand or just a few pictures of shells in the sand. This is a cute gift for anyone with a beach house or a child’s room with a beach theme. Seal with polyurethane sealer.
Gilding
Need Gold paint
Brown for patina
polyurethane sealer
Any chair can take on a new impressive look if it’s painted gold. You can find great varieties of gold paints in spray or bottle form. Use your sponge brush to coat the chair. You can swag some great tassels from the chair. Sponge over parts of the gold with deep brown and then wipe off a bit to give the gold an old look patina.Use polyurethane sealer. You can use presses to embellish your gold with a fleur de lis design if you’re so inclined. See presses later in the article.
Bejeweled.
Need: Paint
Glue
Jewels/Stones
Paint
polyurethane sealer
If you have a young “Princess” at home you can really go wild. Paint the chair a solid color, gold as above or pink, whatever the “Princesses” favorite color would be the choice. Any craft store will have assorted jewels with flat back that can be glued to the chair. If you have the patience you can completely rhinestone the arms or legs or just the back. The “look” is up to you. Tassels look great on a princess chair. You can paint the Princess’ name on it or write Princess in a contrasting color. This can be done with a paint pen. Painted in gold paint pen this would be very cute. If you look in the precut wood design area of your craft store they have crowns already cut out. You can get one of these for about .29 ,paint it , add jewels to it and glue it to the chair. I’d suggest doing this on the back of the part of the chair the little princess will be leaning on. You can also add a velvet cushion, after all a princess needs her comforts.
Sports
Pictures of Baseball, Football, Soccer or Team names
Glue
Varnish/polyurethane sealer
Another idea for a child’s chair is a sports theme. Decide on your base coat. Glue your pictures of balls or team names on the chair here and there. Mod Podge away to protect the pictures. Any theme can be found in precut pictures in the craft stores. Craft stores are a wealth of ideas and easy ways to accomplish them. You could also paint a chair to look like a football or baseball. For the baseball paint the chair white and just use a red paint pen to make stitch lines all around the chair. For a football theme paint the chair brown and do the cream stitch line you see on footballs. These chairs look great with the child’s name on them. Free handing looks fine when you’re writing the child’s name , it gives it a childish look which is cute. You can also find sports themed “presses” and stamps to make it easy to apply a sports theme item. You can combine any of these methods.
Polka dots and stripes
Polka Dots and Stripes look really cute on furniture for an adult or a child. To get a neat stripe you can use painters tape. For polka dots check out the craft stores again for stencils or use an eraser on a pencil . For bigger dots it’s back to the stencils.
Checkerboard
Every craft store offers Checkerboard patterns in stencils to make this an easy design to accomplish
Clouds
White paint and a small sponge can create nice clouds. This is a simple dab away method. You can add Angels if you so desire, check out the craft stencil area again.
All these projects will require several coats of clear varnish or numerous coats of Mod Podge available in sprays or cans at any craft store. This provides protection for the design.
Presses
Presses are like rubber stamps without a wood base and you use paint not ink pads. They are even easier than stenciling. Each design comes with instruction for placement and placement guides. They create a designer effect. ick out your design. Apply your paint to the “press” with a sponge brush. Press this on your chair or table or any project. That’s it. You can get these in sports themes, fruits, vegetables, fleur de lis, stars of all shapes and many many more. Once again, I have to say, visit that craft store and take a look around. The items to help you create something wonderful are endless.
Any piece of furniture can be jazzed up using Presses. Many companies make these and they are available in all sorts of themes. They are inexpensive and available in all craft stores.
All these ideas are very easy to do, even a child can pitch in. If you’re dong a child’s chair and the child gets to help that makes it all the more precious. All the supplies are available at any craft store and all are very reasonable price wise. They all give you a great sense of accomplishment, make cute gifts and add a real flair to any decor. You can also be sure when giving these as gifts that they will be something the person doesn’t have.
