If your apartment has favorite, comfortable and functional furniture that has gone out of fashion, lost its original appearance, or simply does not fit the new interior, do not worry. A used table, chair, chest of drawers or sofa can be given a second life, restored to its presentability and former beauty.
Decorating old furniture with your own hands is not at all difficult; we will try to talk about the basic techniques for transforming interior items.
Furniture decoration methods
Before you start decorating, you need to decide on the design of the furniture and study the decorating methods in detail.
It could be:
- Decoupage. A simple way of decorating involves gluing drawings onto furniture. You can buy a ready-made set for decoupage, or you can use old books or magazines;
- Glizal. Special paint for decoration that can be applied to previously painted surfaces. Glizal is a unique product; it can be used to paint walls, furniture, ceilings and even glass;
- Textile. Used for upholstering old furniture such as an armchair, sofa, ottoman;
- Craquelure is a method of artificially aging furniture;
- Painting. Old furniture can be painted with special paint or varnish;
- Mosaic. This is a way of decorating with pieces of glass, stone, and ceramics. plastic or wood. Broken dishes can be used as mosaic material. Pieces of material are glued to the surface to be decorated. After the glue dries, the gaps between the pieces are covered with cement mortar;
- Stencils and stickers. For furniture decor, this method is one of the simplest. You can buy ready-made stencils or cut them out of cardboard yourself. The stencil is applied to the surface to be decorated, after which paint is sprayed from a can or spread with a brush, and the surface is varnished.
Stickers, the basis of which is self-adhesive film, are available in a large assortment in online stores and stationary retail chains.
- Stickers are suitable for any surface, both for walls and furniture.
- Before gluing, the surface is thoroughly washed.
- The sticker backing is torn off from top to bottom and carefully glued to the surface;
Self-adhesive film
The fastest and most affordable way to update furniture is to use self-adhesive film. Sticky material for furniture decoration is suitable for hard and flat surfaces: stools, tables, chairs, kitchen sets.
There is a huge color palette and a large selection of patterns, which allows you to find the ideal option for the overall interior.
To decorate, you will need a glossy sticky base, degreaser and scissors. The most popular option is with imitation wood. For modern interiors, there are multi-colored bases and complemented with drawings.
Initially, you should get rid of the old paint using a spatula. The surface is washed and degreased. The adhesive base is applied to the furniture in strips.
There is no rush here; the material is applied gradually to avoid wrinkles and bubbles. A roller will help make the work easier; you can use it to smooth out the base.
The excess is trimmed with scissors. You can use two colors, the main thing is that they combine well. For a bright interior, you can choose a combination of bright and neutral shades.
Decoupage furniture
Decorating furniture using the decoupage technique includes several methods.
Classical. Includes gluing a drawing or picture coated with varnish:
- First you need to prepare the surface by cleaning it with sandpaper or a spatula.
- Can be primed. Then, cut out the design.
- There are special napkins for decoupage, but you can use any paper products or wallpaper.
- Having coated the finished part with glue, glue it, carefully go over the drawing with a roller.
- You can complement the composition with a pattern of acrylic paints. Coat the surface with furniture varnish several times.
Reverse decoupage:
- This is a method of gluing pictures to the back of a transparent object.
- You need to coat the front side of the picture with glue and glue it.
- This method is used to decorate glass doors or plates.
Preparation
Before you start decorating furniture, you need to prepare the surface of the product. Depending on the type of jewelry, preparation differs. Most often, this stage requires:
- putty for leveling surfaces;
- primer for filling gaps and cracks;
- various dyes to update the color of furniture;
- finishing varnish. It is used to protect decorative furniture elements from external influences and extend their service life;
- special pastes to make the surface polished.
Also for preparation you need sandpaper and decorative brushes. In addition, plastic PVC plugs for furniture will help hide surface imperfections. A round plug can hide a small dent, and it will also decorate the product. Their main task is to protect the fasteners of interior items. Once the surface is ready, you can start decorating the furniture.
Primer
Dye
Varnish
putty
Craquelure technique
It happens that to emphasize a certain style it is necessary to age the furniture. Then the craquelure technique comes to the rescue.
To work you will need:
- Special craquelure varnish,
- Sandpaper,
- stain,
- Brushes and paints (acrylic and water-based).
Before work, the surface should be thoroughly cleaned or washed.
There are several ways to age furniture:
- Using stain is more suitable for items in light colors. The stain must be applied in an even layer. After that, wipe the center of the surface with a damp sponge. After the surface has dried, you can rub antique wax into it;
- Using acrylic paint. You need to take two acrylic paints of different tones of the same color. First apply a brighter shade of paint to the surface, and then, after drying, a lighter shade. After complete drying, use sandpaper to clean small areas until the first layer appears;
- Paint the surface with the chosen color, then quickly and unevenly apply gold-colored paint with a sponge. The result will be a luxurious gold color.
Briefly about the main thing
Many people have furniture in their homes that they inherited from their grandparents. Don't rush to throw it away. By using one of the restoration methods described in the article, it is easy to give it back a second life and fit it very well into a completely new modern interior. Practice shows that such a solution allows you to create very interesting projects that can transform space, create a warm, homely atmosphere in which it is very comfortable to live.
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Decorating with glissal
Instructions for beautiful furniture decor using the Glizal technique are as follows:
Prepare for work:
- Polyethylene, brush, spatula, sponge, primer, roller, glisal paint and degreaser;
- Clean the surface from dirt, treat with a primer;
- Glizal must be diluted with water in accordance with the instructions;
- Apply glisal to the surface with a brush or roller;
- Within half an hour you can draw a variety of patterns. For example, if you apply a damp sponge, you will get the effect of spots; with a brush you can draw stripes, and with polyethylene you can draw broken lines.
If you don’t like the resulting pattern, you can roll over the surface to create a new pattern.
After the glisal has dried, the surface must be varnished. It must be borne in mind that glisal takes longer to dry than conventional paints and varnishes.
Interesting details
For many styles, carved decor for furniture is an integral part. Exquisite rooms in Provence, Art Nouveau and country styles. These details are also appropriate in a luxurious classic direction.
But the carved decor looks most natural in a rustic style. Natural color and classic shapes can be complemented with paint, but not to change the color, but to slightly emphasize it.
The technique allows you to create light, lace patterns, but their disadvantage is their fragility. For larger parts, the sawing technique is used, it creates stronger parts. For volumetric compositions, relief technique is relevant.
Carved decor is popular when creating decoupage, and will perfectly complement furniture made of natural wood.
New furniture upholstery
Do not throw away a chair or sofa due to scuffs or stubborn stains. Upholstered furniture can be covered with new fabric.
- First you need to remove the old upholstery.
- Then proceed to cutting out the parts, taking accurate measurements.
- The fabric is attached to the furniture using a construction stapler.
- You can cover not only upholstered furniture with fabric, but also chairs or stools, as well as an old chest of drawers or wardrobe.
- First you need to clean the surface of old varnish; this can be done with sandpaper. Remove the fittings, if any.
The fabric must be soaked in PVA for half an hour, then applied to the surface. Cover the surface with varnish.
Ready-made stickers
Overlay decor is becoming increasingly popular. Construction stores offer a wide range of different stickers used in interior design. They can also be used to decorate furniture.
Choose the images you like; these can be silhouettes of animals, architectural structures, nature drawings, still lifes, favorite cartoon characters, etc.
Simply clean the area where you want to apply the decal, press the image firmly and smooth it out. This way it’s easy to decorate your favorite closet, chest of drawers or table.
Master class for beginners
For beginners who want to decorate furniture with their own hands, it is better to start with the simplest methods: stencils, stickers, decoupage or painting with varnish and varnish material.
For the first time, you can decorate a stool or chair.
Master class on furniture decor for beginners:
- To breathe new life into an old wooden stool, you must first remove the old varnish with sandpaper.
- Then, choose a paint and varnish material suitable for this. More than one composition may be needed for work.
- At the initial stage, the stool will need to be coated with a primer to improve the properties of the old wood.
- It is necessary to prime several times. You need to choose a primer that is the same tone as the base material.
- At the second stage, paint the stool with acrylic paint, the chosen color or varnish.
- If paint is chosen as the main material, then after painting the stool, you can use a stencil to create a pattern.
- Place the stencil on the surface and apply another coat of paint. After the stencil is removed, the stool should dry.
- The final step is to apply varnish to the entire stool.
After several layers of primer, you can immediately paint the stool with varnish. This material protects the wood from destruction by creating a protective coating. The varnish can be chosen transparent or colored.
Transfiguration
It is a fairly common practice that old items are simply disposed of, or taken away to a country house or storage room. It makes sense to give furniture a second life. After all, such products that have served for a fairly long period of time are of higher quality, compared to modern pieces of furniture. By supplementing them with decorative elements for furniture, their superiority immediately increases.
Thus, you can make a multifunctional and aesthetic item out of your grandmother’s chest of drawers. The procedure will not take much time, but the appearance will please you for a long time.
The most popular decor ideas for furniture are screen printing, or burning, decoupage. Carving or gilding is often used. These elements have been used since ancient times.
Representatives of this craft are in demand to this day. With the help of such techniques, an old thing, as can be seen in the photo of furniture decor, is updated and attracts attention with its appearance.
For men, the burning method is suitable; for women, you can also choose the most suitable option. This kind of hobby will always come in handy.
Photo of beautiful furniture decor
Dye
Worn old doors can be updated using paint. This decor option is considered one of the simplest and most common. A big advantage is the ability to create any design option, even apply a complex artistic image.
Before completing the final decoration, be sure to prepare the door. To do this, all the preparatory stages are carried out, with only one condition - the canvas must be perfectly smooth and even. The fact is that paint does not hide, but only emphasizes any minor defects. If necessary, you need to replace the glazing beads that previously held the glass insert. Wood can be pre-coated with an antiseptic impregnation compound.
Finishing must be done in stages. First, divide the door leaf into sections into small squares with a side of half a meter. If you have to work with a solid surface, then paint from top to bottom in even lines, painting each area evenly. If the decor is supposed to be in the form of a pattern, then the door is initially coated with a primer, then the main background is leveled. And only after the preparatory procedures can the composition be applied to the canvas.
Textile
Textile materials are great for finishing door panels. The fabric looks interesting and unusual. For decoration, opaque varieties with high density should be selected. Before use, the fabric must be washed in warm water and dried to prevent shrinkage.
There is an option to use pieces of fabric with different patterns and colors to create an unusual decor. You can glue fabric flaps using wallpaper glue or mastic. The fastening method will be the same as for wallpapering. Pay special attention to ensure that pieces of material do not move.
Mosaic
An unusual method of door finishing is the use of small tiles made of glass, ceramic or acrylic. A mosaic composition can be made from various unusual objects - pieces of mirrors, metal elements, even sewing buttons. The tiles are attached using standard glue. An arbitrary abstraction is used as a pattern - everything is limited only by the imagination of the master.
When choosing this method of decoration, it is recommended to use mosaic details in fragments. Due to this, the canvas will get an original and unusual look. But the finishing will not affect the weight and thickness of the structure. If glass elements are used, then you need to use a special glue for ceramics or mastic.
