This project has been stored in my brain for a very long time. I love the look of colourful tiles and have seen self adhesive ones that have been used on staircases - our staircase was looking extremely boring. The self adhesive tiles are great but I couldn't find a style that I liked. However, I did find some Polish folk art napkins on Folkstar. They are the perfect size and a very cheap option to use when doing decoupage. I wasn't sure how it would turn out but I love the end result.
The napkins cost 8.00 Polish Zloty (which works out at £1.60 per pack). There are 20 napkins in a pack - these fold out so you have 4 squares which can be cut up.
To decorate the bottom half of the stairs I used 4 napkins in total and went for a mixture of the rooster design and the white Lowicz folk flower design. Basically, I have used 32 pence worth of napkins. I ordered 3 packs!
When I have tried decoupage in the past I have just used PVA glue and water - this seems to work well for me. I just mix half PVA glue and half tap water in a jar. It is a pretty watery consistency a bit like milk. Obviously napkins are pretty thin so can be very fragile once they are wet, you just need a lot of patience!
After cutting the napkins into single squares I worked out how I wanted to place them on the staircase. Four squares fitted well across the width of a step and I decided to leave one step plain, in between each, so as not to make it look too busy.
I painted the PVA and water mixture onto the back of the step and then placed each napkin on one at a time, painting across the front each one with the PVA and water mixture. Some of the napkins ripped a little at the edges but most can be repaired with your fingers by just gently pushing them into place (plus I have lots of spares anyway).
These dry perfectly well but to protect them it would be worth using a coat of clear varnish the following day.
Our walls are white, so a good blank canvas - we had some left over pictures from where we moved the living room around so these have been added to the walls along with one of my handmade signs and a light up arrow that I bought second hand.
The bright colours make me feel like I could be abroad and it has made a big difference for a very small amount of money.
