Funky Furniture

Sometimes I just can't figure how out this blog picture thing works.  Anyway I wanted to say at the top of this picture that the dresser I decided to funk up was an old, dark, small chest of drawers from my husband's family.  What I did first was use sandpaper and scruff up the piece.  Then I used TSP and wiped it down to clean and get the dust off.  I did two coat of Kiln 2 to prime the piece.  I purchased several small sample cans of house paint from Home Depot for $3 apiece and decided what color I wanted to paint the chest.  I decided on a light lavender. I believe I put two coats of the lavender paint on.  I had decided that rather than paint a design on the furniture I would use fabric and decoupage the piece on the two sides and the top.  Painting designs are not my strong suit. I cut my fabric and used painters tape to secure the design so I could  see how I liked the placement.  After okaying the design, I used Liquitex Matte Medium to adhere the fabric pieces down. or rather decoupage the pieces down.  The wonderful Pamela Allan from the quiltart list gave me lots of info on decoupaging, which was immensely helpful. 

 As you can see I did something different with the front of the piece.  I used black house paint from Home Depot and gave it two coats.  Then I used a dauber to paint the white polka dots on the chest.  The funny thing is that I did the polka dots while the drawers were out of the chest.  I should of put the drawers in the chest and then put the polka dots on the drawers.  It didn't look like that many polka dots with the drawers separate, but together in the chest, there is A LOT of polka dots.  Good thing I like polka dots.  The pictures below are of the finished decoupage side pieces.

 The stripes on all the sides of the piece is from a wonderful fabric I bought a couple of years ago.  Goes to show you never know what you are going to do with fabric.  I never thought I would be using it this way, but it is really fun and saved me from having to paint the black and white checks and polka dots on the chest. The center flower stems are from another wonder stripe fabric. 

     The second side.  I did paint the black and white checks on the top side of the chest and on the very top of the chest. This piece is finished with several coats of water based varnish.

This is the top of the chest.  I really like how this piece of furniture turned out and it will look great in my bedroom.  I already have several pieces of furniture that I want to funky paint and reupholster.  I want to add that my husband doesn't mind all this excess of color I am bringing into the house.  In fact he enjoys it.   After he read this he said with a big grin on his face,  well, he tolerates all this color !!!  As always he is my partner in crime.