A friend of mine bought a decoupage stool at a craft fair, it looked great, covered in old comic book pages, my son saw it and said he wanted one. If you haven't heard of decoupage, it basically means decorating by gluing paper cut outs onto objects.
Well, I have been known to be quite resourceful, so I thought I’d have a go at making my own version as a surprise for him.
This folding chair had been abandoned in a corridor in our flats, so I rescued it, and a while ago painted it yellow (as it was the only colour I had). We’d been using it as a spare chair at our dining table.
I have had a go at decoupage before, not using Mod Podge, but cheap PVA glue from Poundland and water and wrapping paper. I upcycled some drawers with Route 66 wrapping paper for my son, and the PVA and water mixture worked just fine.
I managed to buy a few packs of Marvel wrapping paper from The Works, 99p per pack for two large sheets, it’s pretty cool, it looks very retro. I only used two packs, so I basically spent £3 on the whole thing (including the PVA glue).
First of all I gave the chair a clean. It’s quite a fiddly chair as it folds, so there were a few awkward areas that needed covering.
I did the seat first. I put some water in a jar and squirted in a lot of PVA glue, until when mixed together it looked like milk, just a little thicker. It was trial and error really, but I’m guessing half water half glue.
Using a paint brush I painted the PVA/water mix directly onto the chair seat. I had cut the wrapping paper to size to fit over the seat. I then painted the mixture onto the back of the wrapping paper, then placed it over the seat and smoothed it down with my hands. It’s fairly easy to do, like papier mache, and just like wallpaper, you can move it about afterwards. I then painted over it with another coat of PVA/water.
I did the same with the back of the chair and the legs, until it was completely covered, if any parts ripped I just cut a bit more paper and patched it over.
It took just over two hours to completely cover the chair. It was left to dry for another two hours. I had some clear furniture wax so I also smoothed some over the seat to protect it.
It turned out pretty well, and my boy was so happy when he got home from pre-school. This will look great in the bedroom once it’s decorated – but in the meantime Iron Man is enjoying chilling out on his new chair.
I also managed to get some A4 Marvel prints from eBay, they were £1.50 each and the clip frames were 80p from Wilkinsons. The cushion was £5 from Primark (a birthday present).
