New Feature! 

I absolutely love craft, and since I moved in with Harry into our own little flat I've become totally obsessed with home-wares. I never knew I could love shopping for something more than shoes! So Papio's Do It Yourself Tutorials are going to be my own pet projects for making our flat beautiful. I'd love to hear from you if anyone in the whole wide web uses my tutorials, and see some photos of what you've made - just drop me an email at zanna@papiopress.co.uk :D

Retro Pattern Mini Chest of Drawers!

 

I love little sets of drawers and I am constantly on the lookout for them when I go shopping - they're so handy for little bits, especially when you're  crafter who works with a lot of small things that need storing! 

What you'll need:

 

A Mini Chest of drawers - plain (any one will do! It doesn't have to loo like this, this tutorial would even work with full size chest of drawers if that's what you fancy. I found this little one in the craft section of The Works for a bargain.)

Paint - any will do, for little drawers at least. I used acrylic and Gouache, but if you're doing this on a larger scale you'll need proper tins of paint. Colours are totally optional but I would recommend lots of white and black as they're always handy for mixing!

Contact Paper - this is what I use for the stencils, you can find it on Amazon for really cheap!

Scissors & Paintbrushes

 

Step One:

Paint the chest of drawers with the base colour. This is the colour of the frame, and the colour that will show from under the stencils. I chose black for a retro look, but white would work really well for a gentle summer feel! Once painted, leave to dry.

Please note: when painting the drawers, make sure you notice how much wiggle room there is when you slide them out - I chose to only paint the front of the drawers and not the sides so as not to compromise the movement of my little drawers!

Step Two: 

 

This is the fun part! Cut out the stencil shapes from the contact paper and place them on your drawers. When you've decided you're 100% happy with the designs, peel off the white back and stick the see through part to the drawers. When you're working small I would recommend simple shapes as it can get fiddly! 

Step Three:

 

Paint the front of your drawers! A note on colour: I love pastels, and I think you can't go wrong with pink, green and blue, but that's only my opinion! Bright is also beautiful. If you want to mix colours like mine though, use about 10 parts white to one part red - you always need a lot more white than you think! Once painted, leave to dry!

Colour mixes always look better than straight out the tube too - try mixing a little red and yellow together for the pink to get more of a Coral colour, and a little blue and green to get the teal blue, before you mix into the white. 

Step Four:

 

Peel off the contact paper! It should come off nice and easy. I'm ashamed to say I'm a nail biter, so I used a scalpel to help peel mine off gently! But any sharp pointy object would do. (handle with care).

Step Five: (optional)

 

Paint the inside of the drawers! This step isn't actually necessary - it's purely for my own delight that when I open the drawers they've got contrasting bright colours in them, yummy! I wouldn't do this step if I was working on a large chest of drawers. Once painted, leave to dry!

You might also want to use masking tape to make sure you've got neat edges, but I'm a little lazy with stuff like that when I'm making it for myself! 

Step Six:

 

Put the drawers back in the frame and hey presto!! You've got an awesome, customised set of drawers like no other! Fantastic stuff!

I hope you guys liked my first tutorial! if you have any questions please drop me an email, I always love to hear from you all!

July 24, 2015 — Zanna Goldhawk