Yellow and Pink Chest of Drawers Perfect for a Little Girl's Room

Oh I am so pleased to share with you my first custom order of 2014. The lovely Kate had seen a few of my pieces that I've put up on my Facebook page and wanted something for her little girl's room. She already had a yellow bookshelf so she was after something that would go, but not too matchy matchy. We decided that it would look really cute to have yellow on the outside and pink drawers.

This was the before shot..

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Before... solid pine but a little rough.

Here's a pic of the drawers painted as we described...

Yellow and pink, bright and fun, but missing something?

I liked the drawers but they didn't 'wow' me IYKWIM. I had wanted to replace the knobs but whoever had made these had glued those suckers in so tightly that it was near impossible. I contacted Kate and told her that I thought it would look cute to decoupage around the drawers, just to give them a little something, so it was off to Spotlight to search for paper. I think I've said this before but Spotlight do have really beautiful scrap booking paper. But if that's your thing, you probably already knew that, right? Here are the 5 options I narrowed it down to, before settling on the top left.

And here's what my son Wil got up to in Spotlight when I turned my back for 5 seconds....

So glad we jazzed it up a bit more, it looks fantastic!

Close up of the paper detail.

And just for a little fun, here's what it would look like if it were a sketch (thanks Nikon camera)

Thanks Kate for asking me to do this for you, hope it's exactly what you hoped for!

Are you interested in a custom piece of furniture? Please feel free to contact me and we can come up with something together to suit your needs perfectly.

How to Decoupage Tutorial- A Shabby Chic Bookshelf

I wanted to share a proper tutorial on how I learned to decoupage and to share how effective it can look. Here is a book shelf that I completed for my friend Sarah.

 My first step was to stain the pine shelves. Sarah was looking for a browny-grey stain rather than paint because she wanted to be able to see the wood grain. Here's a pic showing what the shelves looked like when half completed:

To decoupage you need to have a good foam roller, some decoupaging glue (I buy mine from Spotlight), a paint brush for getting into corners and some fancy paper (Sarah chose this paper- her partner just loves how masculine it is!)

 Ensure the surface you are applying the paper to is clean and  smooth, then with your foam roller apply a thin layer of the glue to both the surface you are decoupaging and the backside of the paper. My picture doesn't show it as a thin layer, but that's about how much glue I used for the entire 30 x 30 cm area so it does get quite thinly spread.

Next, carefully place the sheet down on the area. You must work quickly for this part and work section by section so the glue doesn't dry in between. The glue dries incredibly quickly! 

 Smooth down the sheet, working out any air bubbles carefully.

 When you have completed the whole area you need to use the foam roller again and roll glue over the whole piece. This will seal it and leave a nice shine. If the surface will be used for something that gets a bit of use (eg a table top) you can spray a layer of poly over the whole piece. I skipped this step as it wasn't necessary for this particular piece.

For more projects and pieces of furniture check out my facebook page www.facebook.com/RetroVintageLove

Ombré blue chest of drawers and matching bedside tables

Finally, finally, finally I have finished my new favourite pieces- a custom order painted chest of drawers and matching bedside table.
My cousin Kirsten phoned and told me she was looking for a chest of drawers that was painted in graduating shades of blue- sort of similar to a previous piece I had completed, but with vintagey looking handles.

The project had a number of challenges and I have to admit, every part had its own little drama- finding the furniture; fixing the furniture; sanding the furniture (I broke my sander- hello Santa?); finding the handles- impossible- I ended up buying them in bronze and spraying them white; painting both sets of drawers the same four shades (the paint dried between painting the drawers, forcing me to repaint all of them so they would be the same); attaching the handles and drilling the holes in the exact right position- I failed this the first time and had to fix the mistake... Everything just seemed to take so much longer than I anticipated!

However, the result is awesome! I love how these have turned out and I hope my cousin will love them too. 

The base colour, for those who care, is Waikiki Blue. Makes them even prettier to look at, doesn't it?

Remember if you're interested in a custom piece just let me know what you're after!

The larger chest of drawers before- very beat up!

Smaller chest before

For more bits and pieces remember to like my Facebook page- www.facebook.com/RetroVintageLove

Let your friends and family know and don't hesitate to ask any questions if you're thinking about tackling some projects yourself.