DIY Network

Furniture Decoupage Cutouts Update furniture with stenciled cutouts. From "B. Original" episode DBOR-312

Let interesting shapes flutter across your furniture.

When it comes to outdated furniture, Michele Beschen would much rather dress it up than toss it out. In this project, the B. Original host decoupages paper cutouts onto dark furniture to give it a new look.

Instead of decoupaging large areas with bright colors, Michele Beschen cuts text pages from discarded books for this piece. That lets the shapes – and the texture of the type on the page – give a more subtle embellishment without overpowering the furniture. Scroll down to see how it works.

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	Figure A
	Figure B
	Figure C

Furniture Decoupage Cutouts

Materials:

old piece of furniture
pages from books or encyclopedias
stencils
unpasted wallpaper paste, gel medium or white glue
sharp craft knife
polyurethane

• Take a good look at the piece of furniture. Determine what kind of cutouts you want to use, and roughly where they should go. This project usually works best on a solid, darker color.

• Sand the furniture, then remove any additional finish or shine with deglosser.

• Use standard stencils or scrapbooking stencils and stencil cutters (figure A) to cut the book pages into the desired shapes. Pay attention to the direction of the lettering on the pages while cutting. If using standard stencils, position the stencil over the page and trace the shape with a pencil on the back of the page. Cut out the shape with a sharp craft knife.

• Adhere the shape to the furniture using wallpaper paste for unpasted wallpaper, gel medium or white glue mixed with water (figure B). Brush the adhesive onto the paper and apply it to the piece. Gently smooth out any bubbles with your hands, a wallpaper brush or a squeegee. Try not to get excess glue on the furniture.

• Work around the piece until it is covered to your liking (figure C). Wrap some of the cutouts around the edges of the furniture.

• When the glue is dry, give the entire surface a glossy finish with spray or brush-on polyurethane.