Trash to Treasure! Painted and embellished furniture

My wonderful, whimsical, and artistic cousin commissioned my to create this chair for her.
This is how I did it!
1) Buy a chair. From a Denver Gypsy Boys Estate sale of course! This basic wood chair was priced at 10.00.

2) Sand down any shiny surfaces. I used an electric sander. You don't have to be exact or extra thorough about it, you just want to rough up the surface so the paint will stick. 

3) Dust off any debris. I use a large paint brush so it can get in all the nooks and crannies. Use a damp cloth for any sticky or dirty spots. 

4) Now think of your design or theme. Gretchen came up with the original look from something she saw in Somerset magazine (Volume 5 2010, pg 94, "Black & White" by Allison Berringer). She wanted eggplant as a main color. Gretchen is a dancer, so I threw in some touches that had to do with dance. I found an old "How to Dance" illustrated book, and color copied some things from there. I also collected old hardware, old jewelry, and bought some flat backed rhinestones. Gypsy Boys Estate sales are the perfect place to find old jewelry and hardware to use for embellishments. 

5) Spray paint the chair with primer. I used Rustoleum. Again, it doesn't have to be perfect, just enough to get a good base. 

6) I painted on my main colors of eggplant and plum in various designs. For the seat of the chair I used a scrapbook paper that had a laser cut stencil design. I simply painted over the paper to make the stenciled look, then threw away the paper.

7) I sponge stencils to add more interest and design. Just paint directly onto stencil, then stamp onto chair. Let it all dry.

8) I then used scrapbook paper, and copied pages from the old book to decoupage. I cut out an Eiffel Tower image from a scrapbook paper, cause Gretchen loves Paris. I used Modge Podge - just apply some to the back of paper, stick down, then liberally cover the top of the paper. Go ahead and get messy.

9) To add some more interest, I used a colored pencil (in this case white) to scribble some designs, phrases, and quotes.

10) I then used a dry brush technique to go over any dark colors and paper. Dip a brush into a lighter shade of paint. I used white. Wipe off most of paint onto a paper towel. Then lightly lightly brush over chair. Any wood grain or raised areas will get accented.

11) Now it is time to distress. Make sure all paint and decoupage is dry. Use sandpaper to sand off edges, sand off some of darker paint (the white primer will show through), even sand some parts of decoupaged paper to roughen it up a bit.

To make the colors look a bit aged, apply some antiquing glaze. I use Valspar antiquing glaze available at Lowes Home Improvement. Just pour some on an old rag, and rub all over. Wipe away excess.

12) Finally, I added some embellishments. I included old hardware, old vintage jewelry, and rhinestones. I attached 2 curtain finials to the top of the chair.

Trash to Treasure!