Thursday 7 March 2013

I like...

A Rast chest of drawers, £20 from Ikea.

Then...

Now.

I'm ridiculously pleased with how this chest of drawers has turned out. I did like the original plain pine but I'd treated it with Danish oil which made it take on rather yellowish tone and, well, it was just a bit ordinary.

A little bit of staging has taken place, this is how it really looks normally, piled high with stuff, including...

...the patchwork which I have been working away on when I have a spare moment, but which is growing very slowly.

A reverse view.

Back to the drawers - there was an in-between stage...

I tried the Annie Sloan painted white look, too plain...

I dug out an old stencil from the 1990's...

Hmmm, not keen. I hoped the wax would tone it down, but it remained bright and garish (though the children liked it) and I never even bothered to take a photo of it once fully completed. It irritated me slightly whenever I walked in the room. What to do... I'd seen photos on-line and in magazines where people had used wallpaper to decorate drawers so when N and I went to B&Q earlier this week to buy a towel rail we took a wander though the wallpaper section and came home with a few samples.


To apply the wallpaper I removed the drawers and handles and liberally coated the front of the drawers with some of the children's craft (PVA) glue (too liberally in the case of the last drawer, I had to squeegee out lots of excess glue).

Of the wallpaper samples I'd taken home I liked the blue one with birds best, and the sample was big enough to cover all three drawers with the birds still being in sensible positions. It wasn't wide enough to cover the whole drawer front so I used strips from a second wallpaper sample to put down the sides. Once it was dry I replaced the handles and that was it. All free, except the glue, which we already had and which was from a pound shop.

Now when I walk in the room I am happy.

(Except that the table is now covered with the stuff pile, off to find a home for it all, somewhere...)


19 comments:

rockinloubylou said...

That looks fantastic. And all for £1? You clever thrifty thing!

Jacquie said...

Ha, I had that stencil around my utility room in the 90's. Loved it then but I can see why you weren't keen in it today.
You did an amazing job with the wallpaper sample...love the design....and the edge strips look like they are made to measure.
Love you whole cosy room Anne.
Keep warm.
Jacquie x

Astri said...

Beautiful! Love the transformation!

Anonymous said...

I would never have thought of doing that - it's amazingly good looking, well done Anne!

June said...

What a great transformation!
June

Annie Cholewa said...

It looks wonderful! A definite Wow! project :D

Louise said...

A fantastic transformation - it looks great, well done!

Mereknits said...

It looks fantastic, I would have never had thought to refinish it like you did. Great job I love it.
Meredith

Dawn said...

It looks brilliant and I love your choice of wallpaper.

Mairéad said...

Well done. What a transformation! It's beautiful.

Ladybird Diaries said...

That looks amazing, totally transformed.
M xxxx

Claire said...

I just love the wall paper Anne....the drawers look wonderful. Are you eyeing off other pieces of furniture now? Lovely transformation and that patchwork quilt looks amazing.....what a wonderful array of colours and patterns.

Claire :}

Gerda said...

It looks really lovely, a very clever way to refinish these drawers. Groetjes, Gerda

Rattling On said...

It looks great. I use wallpaper for all kinds of things, it's such good quality paper as well!

Gillian Roe said...

I love it! What a great idea. You've made something ordinary very beautiful, and how cool that the samples were free!

Nothing wrong with a bit of staging - I always do that. It's fun, and who wants to see the mess I usually live with? Not me!

The hexies are coming along nicely too.

Gillian x

Jennyff said...

Yes I like it too, very much. The wallpaper is perfect, well done.

Simone said...

What a fantastic job! You have made a vast improvement on the original. I think it looks great!

Lulu said...

that turned out beautiful...I love it..

Mrs. Micawber said...

Gosh, I thought at first you had painted that yourself. (Because I know you could if you wanted to.)

It's beautiful. The stencil was pretty, but a little too stark and garden-room-ish. That wallpaper is perfect. Nice work!

P.S. I really like that curtain fabric.

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