How To Decoupage Dresser Drawers - With Napkins!

Welcome back!  Last week you saw a garage sale dresser transformed with paint and decoupaged napkins.  If you missed it, click here. 

Today I have a little tutorial showing how it was done.  Let's get started, shall we?

The drawers were sanded down to bare wood and the edges were painted black to match the rest of the dresser.  The napkins were found at the Dollar Store.

Notice they are 2-ply napkins?  You only need one, so separate those layers!

Iron the one-layer.  It helps when you are ready to lay it down on the wet decoupage medium.  

Since the napkins were not wide enough to cover the entire drawer, I was going to have to piece them together.  These napkins also had a very definite pattern that was going to need matching, so it was time for some measuring.  I found the middle of the drawer and matched it to the middle of the napkin.  Then I marked the edges of the napkin on the edge of the drawer with chalk.  See the white (chalk) dot?

There are actually two of them as guides for laying down the napkin.  

At this point, you need to match two more napkins on either end.  If your napkins have a random pattern, you don't have to worry, but in this case, matching was a must. Once I knew how they were going to be placed, the drawer was brushed with decoupage medium.  I used Mod Podge (satin finish) and brushed it on with a chip brush.  It happened to be what was sitting on my shelf.

The first napkin was placed in the center of the drawer:

The other two were matched and put down....that's when I ran into trouble, but didn't know it.  See the line where I matched (and overlapped) the napkins?

DON'T DO THAT!

Let me go back to the original pics of the napkins.  There is an edge that is a bit lighter.  

It's hard to see, but once it's decoupaged, it stand out like a sore thumb.  

Time for the true confession... I sanded everything off of two drawers because I couldn't live with the the big - obvious lines!  My husband thought it was fine, but my eye went right to them every time I looked at it.

The solution?  Trim those edges off and when you you match them, try not to overlap them too much.  It looks much better.  Trust me!

Now, back to the tutorial.  

The napkins were placed on the drawer over the decoupage medium and I needed to smooth them out.  There was no way to do that without ripping the napkin, but I found a solution:

I waited a few minutes and then ripped-off a piece of plastic wrap to lay over the drawer. Using my finger, very gently, I smoothed-out most of the wrinkles.  You're not going to get them all out, so don't even try.

See those wrinkles?

Just smooth them out through the plastic wrap, lift it up, move to another area - works like a charm.

Next, use a sanding block to trim the edges of the drawer.  The paper comes right off.

The white powder is just dust - it brushed right off.

I let the drawer dry for a bit and then applied the second coat of decoupage.  That's when I had my second panic attack....everything started bubbling!

Never fear...plastic wrap to the rescue:

Whew!

The final step was a spray sealer - Rustoleum Semi-Gloss Spray Sealer.  My husband did it, since he's better at it than me! Two coats and set them aside to dry.

The knobs were attached and the drawers were done!

You can barely see the line where the napkins were matched.

One thing I want to note - this process was done over bare wood.  I wanted the wood to show-through for an 'aged' look.  If you don't want that look, I would recommend painting the drawer fronts white.  I haven't tried it yet, but I'll let you in on a little secret....

I found another dresser and you know what I'm I'm going to do with it, right?  

You can see that dresser HERE.

Decoupage is a lot of fun.  I've done it before, but never on furniture and after this, I can say that I'll try it again.  I think it's a great way to give yourself a unique piece of furniture!

Please share your experience with decoupage (and any tricks you know) in the comments below.

Thanks for visiting the Cottage...I hope you'll pin, share, & follow.  Have a great week!

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