Decoupaged Two Drawer Chest for Studio

With everything that has been going on lately, my house has been on hold. It’s hard to get much accomplished in the middle of a pandemic lockdown. But it has been more than two weeks since any of us had any possible exposures, so at least we should be able to work together again, and we might get some work done soon. In the meantime, I’ve been working on reorganizing my studio. I have two rooms in my parents’ daylight basement where I make all the hats I sell on Etsy and do all my general crafting. Just after New Year’s, we had a plumbing problem and the whole basement flooded. We packed everything up and moved it to two giant storage containers in the yard (nicknamed Fred and George) and waited while the place was dried out and new flooring and sheetrock were installed. Then came the pandemic and again, things ground to a halt. But I didn’t want to work out of boxes anymore, so I started to move back in. But I am trying to figure out the best way to reorganize and set things up for an efficient work flow. But I still want things to be both pretty and functional, so while the rooms are empty, I’m painting some pieces of furniture for extra storage in my new, improved studio.

I started with a small two drawer chest that I got at the local ReStore a while back for $10. This will be the first in my series of ReStore Revamps. I need something to sit beside my desk to hold my printer and this will be perfect. The drawers will work for storing extra paper, shipping labels and ink.

My walls are a custard yellow with a gold and pale red sponged design that my Dad created years ago. When they repaired the walls after the flood, they offered to repaint everything, but I love the original look, so I made sure to find similar colors so we could recreate it on the patched sheetrock. It gets cold down there sometimes, and I love the feeling of warmth that these walls create. My colors are basically red and gold (even though I am 100% Ravenclaw) so these guided me on the printer chest.

I started by giving it a coat of gold paint, Toffee Tart by Behr all over except for the drawers. I have several samples of Behr paint in a flat finish that I made into homemade chalk paint by adding two tablespoons of calcium carbonate to each 8-ounce jar. Because this project took so many materials, all links will be listed at the end of the post. NOTE: It’s much harder to do a project like this when the drawers don’t come out- always check first.

Because the drawers were different shapes, I decided to decorate them differently. I knew I wanted to use a paper napkin decoupage for the top drawer, so I gave it a base coat of pale ivory, Lantern by Heirloom Traditions. The paper napkins I chose had a pale pink base, so I painted the bottom drawer to match in Buff Rose by Heirloom Traditions.

I spread Country Chic’s Crackle Medium liberally all over the gold, because I wanted a really chippy, crackly finish. I slathered on a dark red paint, Divine Wine by Behr, over the top and waited for the cracking and peeling to start. With crackle medium, the thicker the coat, the bigger the cracks. I got some lovely big cracks on the top, and a few spots on the sides where the red paint peeled away revealing patches of gold. This is great, because it gave the old, worn look I was going for.

For the top drawer, I decoupaged two paper napkins with a pattern of hot air balloons and birds on them. I found them at and Etsy shop called Tamara’s Paper Napkins. A layer of Mod Podge on the drawer, smoothing the napkins over the top and around the edges, and another layer of Mod Podge over the top. I used a matte finish, and it gave just the right amount of sheen with a slightly textured finish. I filled in the holes from the original handles at the beginning with wood filler, and I added a cream colored pumpkin knob to the top drawer.

I love stripes, but this chest will be near a striped curtain, so I decided on a harlequin pattern for the bottom drawer. I sketched out the design with a pencil, before painting in the diamonds in a light yellow, Mac N Cheese by Behr. It didn’t look fancy enough to go with the hot air balloon pattern, so I added red lines in Peppery by Heirloom Traditions around the diamonds using masking tape to give it more of an argyle look.

The Mod Podge darkened the pale pink of the napkins, and the bottom drawer color no longer matched the top. So I used Folk Art’s antiquing wax to darken the bottom drawer and make the two match better. Again, it added the aged feel that I wanted for this piece.

But it still didn’t look as fancy as the top drawer, so I pulled out some air dry clay from ReDesign by Prima and a mould from Iron Orchid Designs to make some decals for the corners and a beaded edging. I glued them down with wood glue while they were still pliable, so I could push them into the corners to make them flush with the drawer.

After they dried, I spray painted an old drawer pull in RustOleum Hammered Brown, and used a similar metallic paint, English Brown from Modern Masters (and a really tiny brush) to paint to mouldings to match. I had to fill in a few gaps since the paint made the clay shrink a little around the edges, but when it was done it finally looked right with the decoupaged drawer.

I used a paintable wallpaper to line the bottoms of the drawers, and painted the insides in Mac N Cheese and Sweet Cherry by Behr.

A coat of Waverly Matte Varnish, (two for the top) and it was done. I am delighted with the way this chest turned out. It will be a perfect addition to my studio.

Best,

Fiona