DIY Decoupage Wine Rack

I picked up this little beauty, my soon to be DIY Decoupage project, at St. Mary’s Hospital yard sale.  They do it every year, and I miss it every year.  But I was determined… even with a cold that was plaguing me, thanks to The Boyfriend.   And my efforts were rewarded when I found little gem.  I negotiated it for $15, which was an okay price.  I mean, how much can you bargain down at a charitable hospital sale – and you know, still live with yourself??  It’s $5, just so you know.

So here’s what I used for this DIY Decoupage project:

• • • • Dixie Belle Chalk Paint -Vintage Duck Egg
      • Dixie Belle Chalk Paint – Fluff
      • Mod Podge – Gloss Finish
      • A new knob 
      • Minwax Polycrylic Water Based Protective Finish, Gloss
      • Ultra Flexible Sanding Sheet, 220 Grit
      • 1 sheet of lovely decorative tissue paper

After giving a good cleaning, I use a homemade vinegar spray, I got to painting!  Dixie Belle’s Vintage Duck Egg chalk paint goes on so well.  Better than their other colors and I don’t know why, but I love it and it’s my new favorite.  I did do a second coat, but that’s rare.  Usually I can get away with one coat because it goes on so evenly.   I will admit all of the little ins and outs were more time consuming than I prefer, but overall it went pretty quick.

 

With any surface that I’m going to decoupage, I paint the surface with Dixie Belle’s Fluff Chalk Paint first.  The reason being is that I want the paper to standout.  If it goes over a dark wood or paint, it will look faded, especially if it has light colors – like this does.  But I will paint the edges in the color I’m painting the piece.  You’ll see why.  

And yes, I did iron out this tissue paper.  It’s a little thicker than usual tissue paper, so it did fine on my lowest setting with no steam.  By the way, this is the only time you’ll ever see me iron.  The Boyfriend can wear a wrinkled shirt and that’s just fine, but by god my craft paper will be flat.

I measured out the tissue paper and made it just about a 1/2 inch – 1 inch bigger than I needed for the top and I measured a perfect size for the drawer.  I took the mod podge and just slapped it on thick.  With the drawer I slowly eased the paper on after I mod podged.  Don’t worry about wrinkles, that’s part of the charm.  With the top, I did a 2 inch sections of mod podge and then laid the initial tissue paper over that.  Then mod podged another couple of inches, and then spread…. continue until it’s done!  Do it in sections, otherwise you’ll have a crazy wrinkly mess on your hands, or tear your sheet while fixing it.

Then I saturate it with mod podge on both the drawer and top.  Make sure you get the corners good.  Don’t worry if it bleeds over a little, we’ll fix it.  I realize that this is different than what Mod Podge recommends on their directions.  But I don’t care, this is how I do it.  It’s working for me so far.  

After it dries for a few hours (I like to wait overnight), take that flexible sanding sheet and gently sand around the edges of the decoupage areas.   Eventually the excess paper will pull away and come off or just give it a light tug.  Anything that’s left and sticky, take an x-acto knife and try to trim and scrape away.  Don’t worry if you damage the paint – it’s supposed to look distressed.  And don’t worry if you tear a little bit of the paper, it’ll look cool.  This is why we painted the blue on the edges… see?  If you still have some remnants of paper on places you don’t want, take a fine grit sand paper and nub it down, or take a little of the base paint and paint over it.  It’s cool, no one is looking – I won’t tell.  I do it all the time!

Then I get to distressing.  I take my sand paperand pick and choose which areas need to be distressed.  I usually go for corners and front flat pieces.  Then I dust it off again, and wipe it down well.  Then it’s time to pull out the Polycrylic!  This is my favorite part of any project because the poly really brings out the paint and distress marks.  Put a nice light finish on it, check for drips- they will yellow and are a pain to sand off.  Give it at least an hour, and then do it again.  It recommends sanding your piece between coats, but that just seems like a lot of work, so I skip it.  Typically, I’m okay with 2 coats of poly, but I did the top four times to be on the safe side.  I don’t want my lovely finish coming up.

I did replace the pull hardware with a $3 knob from Lowes.  Usually I just spray paint the original hardware and put them back on, but this was a weird pull and was pissing me off when I was putting it back on.  So $3 for a new knob was worth every penny and saved rants around my house.  Look how cute it is on my small consignment space at Lexington Vintage!

Voila!  You have a lovely new piece in just a couple hours.  I LOVED how this piece turned out.  This is a great wine rack, towel holder, side table… what would you use it for??