From centuries this beautiful technique adds sense of art in the interior. Originated from Ancient China and reached Europe in the early Middle ages, the skill to applicate with paper, textile, leather and even wood is still a tool to refresh and decorate the interior.
Because the word "decoupage" means exactly this – cutting – making collage or paper application.
The most popular decoupage technique is decorating objects with napkins or fine fabrics (colored silk, lace). For the purpose you cut motives from the paper or the fabric and you glue them onto something that we early choose to decorate. The napkins are the most popular because they have rich and diverse motives and in the same time they are very cheap material.
But how to create this idea into our home? Usually, the decoupage is used with wooden furniture (shelves, cabinets) or porcelain kitchen utensils. You will need some basic things:
An object for the decoration – you decide to refresh the drawers in the old nightstand or the inside of the old shelf (at the bottom there are great suggestions). The glass (porcelain) cup or the boring ceramic pot – you can refresh them with only one colorful detail – don’t be afraid to try.
Scissors – except an ordinary one, it will be good to have one of those little scissors with bend edges to cut those fine elements. Model knife will do a good job too.
Colorful application (chosen from a napkins or another material).
Glue – depending on the surface that you will decorate, you can buy glue for porcelain or glass, but if you are going to work with wood, just pick ordinary C200 glue. At some places you can also buy special decoupage glue.
White acrylic paint – it would be needed for the base as a primer. It is not necessary, but when you paint the base in white it will make the colors of the decoration element to stand out. If you miss the white base, the final result would be pale and unsatisfying. If you are going to decorate wood but you don’t have white paint, you can use ordinary white latex.
Painting brushes and brushes for the glue.
Acrylic lacquer – it would be necessary for the final touch of your creation.
If you have everything aforementioned, you can start with the decoupage. First, make sure that the surface of the object that you will decorate is clean and dry. If you are going to use wood, you can sand it slightly with fine sandpaper – this way you will clean the surface and make it more suitable for gluing. When you done this use the white paint as a primer.
When you are gluing only couple of details, not the whole base, be careful for the edges. If you are gluing on the whole surface – be bold with the brush. If you decided to make a collage with a lot of elements, cut them carefully and sort them out the way that you would want to glue them afterwards.
To be a lot easy for you, make a contours on the dry white paint and mark the spots of the elements – this way it would be easier to arrange them. After that you can glue the surface and carefully start to arrange the collage. Be careful not to make wrinkles, and for the bigger surfaces not to make air bubbles. Smoothen out with the help of the brush and the glue, but be careful not to rip the paper.
When everything dries out you can put a layer or two acrylic lacquer for extra shine and sealing the decoupage. Wait for it to dry out and you are ready to show the world your new creation and your newly acquired skills.
Underneath we are going to show you what kind of house objects you can use as a base for decoupage. Don’t be afraid to make your home more colorful and to give new life to the old furniture that you wanted to trash out.
