What goes on while I'm sleeping happily in the sun during the last days of summer.....The Wagner Bedroom/Room 5 at Prospect Hill contains a bureau Judy the Innkeeper bought at an estate sale--for her first BandB in Atlanta. Over time, wet glasses and drinks made rings. Frankly, it was unattractive.
This weekend and on into this week Judy has been decoupaging the bureau top using striped brown paper bag type wrapping paper (from WalMart) and Modpodge adhesion and sealing material (from Michaels). Add a 1 1/2 inch paint brush, a razor blade, scissors and a sanding block (Lowes) and you have the tool kit. Here's what the process looked like:
(1) lightly sanded the messed up top. Note that the irregular shape of the top made it too difficult to get glass cut. This room is popular so there is never enough time to carry it down one flight, sand, refinish, air out and move it back upstairs. Bureau is in Room #5/Wagner Bedroom.
(2) Cut straight edges on the paper. IF this paper had not has a distinct line pattern, the factory edge of the paper would have been OK up against the back edge of the top.
White streaks are the modpodge "glue and sealer" which Judy painted on the back of the paper with a paint brush. It was easiest to lay the paper on the bureau top and coat it there, then smooth out the excess (white streaks you see).
Ripping the paper's edges makes a more interesting pattern for this bureau. All irregular squares or perfect squares are also possible. Judy wanted this job to move was fast as possible so paper was ripped randomly but making sure the stripes would go "every which way" when assembled.
The humidity was low at the start of this project so Judy had to work quickly. She poured a small amount of modpodge on a disposable plastic plate then closed up the bottle and worked from the "glue" on the plate.
Where the edge of the bureau rolled over she stopped the paper and cut it with a razor blade as needed.
To finish up the initial install, she coated the top.
Problems:
a) the paper bubbled slightly because she was unable to get the paper perfectly saturated with modpodge (rush to not let it dry too fast). Some bubbles remained. She popped some of them with a pin and cut a few with the razor blade. For this install a few imperfections are OK. IF you are doing carefully cut squares or geometric s (especially for 1950s-1960s furniture) you need to get it perfectly flat. Use a better quality paper and TEST it by gluing a piece to an old wall or board (very smooth surface) to check for any wrinkling/bubbling issues.
When it dried the effort was certainly worth while. Because the furniture was dark brown, any spots not covered show up dark brown (three in photo at right) which is OK. Totally unanticipated were the brown edges which form a nice pattern
Also unanticipated were the grey/black spots randomly all over the top which seemed to leak through the paper. We think it had to do with the original (restored) finish OR maybe some way or Endust product used on the bureau since we bought it in 1992. Anyway, it looks even more aged, which is fine.
In two days, Judy will have added a total of five top coats, slightly sanding in between. This will give the top a thoroughly waterproof and matte finish. (Modpodge also comes in gloss. Since glossy finisihes show all imperfections, she didn't choose that one!)
Here's a photo of it finished, with the last coat curing.
That was a pretty fun project but NOT one Tiger Lily and Mich were invited to join in (too much hair!)
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