OLD HOUSE DIYer

A garage-sale dresser, desk, cabinet, or chair can be made over with decoupage.

A garage-sale dresser gets new life with paint and decoupage.

If you’ve got a vintage

(but not precious) piece of furniture, add color and pattern to suit with decoupage. From the French decouper meaning “to cut out,” the idea goes back centuries, but was popularized in 17th-century Venice, where it was meant to mimic lacquerware from Asia. In England during the 19th century, gluing paper ornament (using botanical papers, embossed papers, and such ephemera as greeting cards and maps) was all the rage and soon spread to the United States. This project requires no fussy cutting of individual ornaments, only gluing sheets to the drawer fronts.