The “shabby chic” trend, making painted furniture with an eclectic style of flea market cast offs, continues to be a staple of interior design. Customizing your furniture allows you to make it fit into your room design, and is simple enough to do with the right tools. With the use of stencils and paint, you can make the perfect complimentary furniture instead of endlessly searching for it. Here are some techniques that will help take your furniture from shabby to chic.
Style with stencils. You can find stencils in a variety of styles and designs, from country, to wacky, to distressed, glazed, or gilded. Stencils can be bought at your local hardware store or you can make your own by printing out designs from the web. If you are creating your own design, enlarge or shrink the image to fit the size for your furniture. Then, use painters tape to adhere the design onto a sheet of clear acetate (which you can find at your local art store). Cut out the design using an Exacto knife, then fill in the design with your choice of paint color. Let dry, then finish with a top coat of clear varnish for a polished look.
Glamorize with glitter. Add glimmer and sparkle to your furniture! Many people think glitter furniture is only appropriate for kids’ rooms, but it can also add a touch of sophistication to an elegantly designed space. Because of its reflective properties, glitter easily catches the light and brightens a space. It can a touch of romance to a candle lit dinner, or enhance the effects of chandeliers and ceiling lights. In the past, glitter painted furniture used to take several steps with multiple products to accomplish the end result. However, companies Meoded have created special paints that make designing with glitter an easy one step process. Many of these specialty paints can be customized to match your existing decor.
Create texture with glaze. Glazing furniture is a unique way to achieve a dynamic faux-finish. The great thing about using glazes is that you can use several colors that overlap to add dimension to the finished piece. Try contrasting or complementary colors, a muted echo of the shade used on the underlying piece, or bright combinations to achieve fun textures.
Vamp up your furniture with velvet. Luxurious finishes like velvet have become popular over the years because of the soft rich look that it gives to any surface. You’ll need two to three paint colors of your choice to achieve the right texture. Brush each color on in a cross hatch pattern to create the look of fabric, changing the shades based on the different directions you apply it. The finished piece will have a varied colored texture that adds a feeling of luxury to the whole room.
Magnify with metallic hues. Metallic finishes can be used to add an accent to any piece of furniture in any color you desire. Use this type of finish to create Victorian and vintage-style pieces without having to pay the cost of reproduction on antique furniture. The use of metallic colors can also dress up your furniture to create a mod or glam look.
Boldly accent with beads. Glass bead finishes create a shimmering, raised surface that is simply stunning. This look can be achieved with stencils or applied freely with a brush on any type of surface. Because the beads are transparent, tinted color shines through the beads. You can create an array of textures and patterns with different sized beads by applying them in different directions. The end result is a spectacular finish that is extremely durable.
When it comes to finishing your furniture, there are loads of possibilities to achieve custom looks for a cost effective upcycle. Try these finishing ideas in your home as an easy way to DIY!
