Scandi style
Upcycle tired-looking chairs with a Scandinavian-inspired stencil. Perfect for an instant update for your bedroom.
Try stencilling to update a chair
INFORMATION Materials
* Sandpaper
* Water-based white wood primer
* Water-based grey silk finish
topcoat for wood
* Water-based pure white silk
topcoat for wood
* Paintbrush
* Gloss-finish mini roller and tray
* Scalpel
* Cereal box
* Old wooden chair
* Stencil (p128)
Skill level: Moderate
Time to make: 5 hours
Good-quality wooden chairs can stand the test of time but every now and then we all fancy a change. Painting your furniture is an economical and easy way of updating any room in your house, and we think this pretty stencilled chair is perfect for a feminine bedroom. The huge variety of colours and finishes available in wood paint gives you the chance to experiment, so choose your shade, use our gorgeous stencil and create design magic!
How to make the stencilled chair
1 Give your chair a good rub down with sandpaper and remove any dust and debris with a damp cloth.
2 Using a paintbrush, apply a coat of white water-based primer directly onto the chair and leave it to dry for the recommended time stated on the tin.
3 Apply two topcoats of a silk finish in your chosen colour (we’ve used a neutral grey to suit any room). Make sure to read the instructions on the tin and allow the correct amount of drying time between coats.
4 Choose your design. Stencils can be bought from most good craft shops. If you want to use our design, place a paper version (copied from page 128) on top of a flattened cereal box and tape the sides to secure it in place. Cut around the edges of the pattern using the scalpel and remove the middle sections to make a stencil. For this chair we used a large pattern for the central feature and then down-sized the pattern on a computer and used only part of it as a border to complement the main motif.
5 Place your stencils on your chair, moving them around until you’re happy with where they are lying, then secure them lightly in place with a dot of easy-peel masking tape (don’t use too much masking tape or there’s a chance you may peel off some of the grey paint).
6 Roll over your stencil using the gloss-finish mini roller lightly coated in pure white topcoat. You may need to roll from a number of different directions to ensure the whole pattern has been filled in.
7 You can reuse the same stencil until it starts to warp with the wetness of the paint. Then you’ll need to cut out a new one.
8 Leave to dry as instructed on the tin and you’re done!