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Simply Chic Treasures

Budget DIY's, Crafts, and Home Decor

Old Wooden Chest Makeover with a vinyl stencil

July 13, 2020      3 Comments

My father-in-law had picked up this crate full of legos at a yard sale a year or two ago. Some of those legos then ended up at our house and some stayed for my boys to play with while at Nana’s. The wooden box sat outside on their patio for a long time.

As expected, it got fairly weathered and worn out. So, the other day they were cleaning things up and decided to add some handles and wheels to it. My mother-in-law was thinking she might like to use it in her living room for pillows and blankets, or maybe on the front porch with greenery at Christmas. So she asked me to give the old wooden chest a makeover.

So, she asked me to do something with it. Paint something on the side to make it special. Here is what I came up with:

Old wooden chest makeover

Here are the steps I took in this old wooden chest makeover:

I sanded the wood down because it was a little rough feeling. Nobody like splinters!

I then applied a grey stain. I chose grey because I didn’t want the colour of the wood to change drastically, I just wanted to enhance it and even it out a bit. This is the grey stain I used.

Old wooden chest makeover

Then I worked on the perfect design and cut it out on a sheet of adhesive vinyl. To make a vinyl stencil, you need to weed out everything that you want to be painted. Does that make sense? Basically, you take out the letters and leave the rest. The opposite to what you would normally do when you are weeding. Carefully apply your vinyl to the surface and make sure you burnish the cut edges so your paint doesn’t bleed.

make a vinyl stencil

I started with the H and painted it navy, peeled off the vinyl and hated it. So, I repainted over it by hand with black.

make a vinyl stencil

Then I applied the second piece of vinyl.

make a vinyl stencil

And used a cream on that one. I ended up doing two coats for better coverage. I then peeled it off right away. You don’t really want to wait too long before taking it off, because a seal will form between the paint and the vinyl and it might peel on you. I used one of those “dental pick tools” to get the centers of the letters out.

make a vinyl stencil

When you are layering different colours like this, make sure your paint is dry enough. I did have some of the black paint on the H come off when I peeled off the cream vinyl. But the H is a simple design and was easily touched up.

The Final Step was to apply a finish:

I used Clapham’s Beeswax Polish for a natural looking finish.

Also, I replaced this piece of trim on the front here that was missing. I went through a bit of trial and error process to get the colours to match. Can you tell it’s a new piece?

That’s “Little Lambie” perched on top of the books. He’s my eldest son’s favorite stuffy and is definitely well-loved!

Old wooden chest makeover

There’s so many different ways of applying images to wood isn’t there? What is your favorite way?

Did you like this post? I would love it if you pinned it 🙂

Linking here: Vintage Charm Party, The Cottage Market, Finding Silver Pennies

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Comments

  1. CoCo says

    July 16, 2020 at 2:58 pm

    This looks so good, Cynthia! What a special piece for your mother in law too. I’ve never seen this technique used before so I’m really excited to try it now. Thanks so much for the easy to follow step by step! Hope you’re having a great day, CoCo

    Reply
  2. Cecilia says

    July 19, 2020 at 7:56 pm

    How charming! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm!

    Reply
  3. Jayne says

    July 26, 2020 at 1:02 pm

    This is gorgeous! I have a chest that could do with a makeover so I may be tempted to have a go at something like this, thanks for the tutorial!

    Reply

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Hi! My name is Cynthia and I LOVE making things! I am a stay-at-home mom to two adorable little boys. Here I share my love of all things DIY, Craft and Décor... all on a budget!

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