Stools

I've been following some wonderful DIY blogs for a few months and decided to try my hand at some of the ideas I've earmarked for our home.

First up, stools. Boring wood stools. Like this one only uglier.



They were so ugly I didn't take a picture of them. Luckily someone else posted pictures of their semi-ugly stools online. We got two of these free (maybe because they were so ugly?) so I was okay with a possible throw-them-in-the-burn-pile future.

Everyone raves about the Heirloom White spray paint from Rust-Oleum, so I picked some up at my local hardware store. I also picked up a spray gun trigger. LOVE IT. I scrubbed and cleaned both stools and spray painted them.

I tried, I really tried to do several thin coats of the spray paint, like everyone recommends. I am unable to do that. Even my scale will attest that I do not know what the word thin means. While the trigger did help, I know a professional spray-painter can do a much better job.

Once the stools were painted I let them dry.

For a month.

Actually only 27 days.

Seriously, because I painted them on July 8, two days before hosting a baby shower for my niece.

Anyhoo...oh, you don't know that word? Very Minnesotan. Anyhoo, after the stools were finally dry, I tried an interesting transfer technique on the tops.

I found some great french typography graphics at The Graphics Fairy.

I don't know what they say. Please let me know if they are offensive. Slang I can handle.

I cropped the downloads to the size I needed and darkened them up a bit. I also reversed the images. This is a very important step if using numbers or letters. Except for x. Or o. Or l.

Then I "painted" some sheets of printer paper with good ol' elmers washable glue and let the paper dry. Once dry I fed the paper through my printer and printed out the images. I lightly mod podged the top of the stools and laid the paper image side down. I used a flat scraper and made sure there were no bubbles hiding, then I let the stools dry overnight.

The next morning I soaked the paper with water. Be smart and use a spray bottle for this step. I was in too much of a hurry to walk out to the shed. Instead I got a sponge soaking wet and squeezed it out on top of the paper. Once the paper was truly wet, I carefully peeled it off.

TA-DA!











I'm very happy with my first DIY project!

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