Sailing away on a Dresser

Another Upcycling Tuesday.. Well just don't sit there, applaud!

My middle son loves two things, Pirates and Starwars. There can never be enough of either in our household so after seeing this beauty from Miriam I knew he would just LOVE it for years.

After tracking down the original source off pintrest (who doesn't love that site?!) I read and admired that dresser but I wasn't going to pay $100+ for the decal needed to do this type of reverse stenciling. To me that just was not thrifty enough to justify buying it.

My first step was to find the dresser and lucky for us there is normally a yard sale or two each weekend here, so we ended up getting this.....

Real beaut huh?..... yicks! but it was only $20 and it has these neat little divers in one drawer. SOLD!

Next I had to figure out how in the world was I going to do a reverse stencil. After some thinking I decided to paint on paint my stencil and what was going to help me do it?

Frog tape. This stuff is amazing when it comes to making stripes or not wanting paint to bleed over.



Getting started I lightly sanded it then filled the handle holes in 4 of the drawers (sorry no picture). I primed it with Kilz and then painted it with a semi glossy white paint.

 After it was dry I put the Frog tape on the front and started sketching the picture.

 Once I got the picture down, I started lightly cutting it out. If you decide to do something like this use a mat cutter and be very careful not to cut too deep.

 The front of the dresser before painting it and removing tape.

 After :-) .... Almost done.

 Let that dry for a good 24 hours before putting your final coat sealer. I used Polycrylic gloss finish since I used a white paint (other will have a yellow ting to it)

After one coat of Polycrylic.

 In hind sight I should have fixed up the dings on the drawers of the dresser but for a kid under 7, I think it will have it's share of dings later.

 I ended up painting the bottom "feet" to match the paint color.

Here you go, for under $40 we have a dresser that our son loves not to mention the neighborhood kids love it too. hahaha. Once we get to our new home I might take the time to fill up the holes and have 2 handle on the remaining 4 drawer but for now I think it's okay.