Add a pop to your furniture with stencils.
Sometimes you just feel the need to add a little extra something to a piece. Give it a little pizazz. Some je ne sais quoi. Maybe I’m selling it a little too much, but adding this detailing is super easy and can male all the difference.
Where it started
This dresser belonged to my client since she was young which, she’ll be the first to tell you, was many many years ago. She refinished it once in her college years by stripping/sanding blue paint off and staining it. The dresser is sentimental to her, so she couldn’t bear to get rid of it, but it no longer fit the aesthetic of her home.
She wants a more more modern, clean, slightly beach look for the dresser, and she wanted those metal plates on the feet to go away.
Prepping the dresser
First things first, remove hardware and clean the piece. Prep work is always necessary to get a good result. After cleaning, get to sanding. I decided not to strip anything on this dresser, I was able to sand the lower three drawers to a nice raw finish with 150 followed by 220 grit sandpaper. The rest of the piece was scuff sanded with 150 grit to give paint something to hold on to. Then I made whatever repairs were necessary, there were some gaps in the frame, so I reinforced them if necessary with wood glue and/or nails, and then caulked some of the gaps in the frame. Next were the metal feet.
Because of the unevenness after removing the feet, i wasn’t able to keep the legs wood like she originally wanted. I used bondo on these areas then sanded them to level everything off.
I then primed the areas that were going to be painted.
Applying stencil
Figure out your desired placement. I used tape to keep the stencil in place. You want to make sure you’re using a dry brush, and load it very lightly with paint. If it’s too wet or there’s too much paint, you’re more likely to get some bleeding to areas that you don’t want to paint.
To apply, just dab the brush over here stencil.
See my post about Benjamin Moore Advance paint for details about the painting of this piece! Finishing the drawers To seal the drawers, I used General Finishes Flat out Flat topcoat to protect the wood without changing the color (like you might with wax) and without giving it a sheen (like you would with GF High Performance topcoat).
There you have it!
Link to products:
Stencils: https://amzn.to/32WLBiP
GF flat topcoat: https://amzn.to/3r1twYJ