Feeling Pink Recycled Painted Furniture Revisited

 

I have been slowly working my way through my collection of furniture.  This is the same recycled magazine holder that I talked  about in my blog entry about primers.

For some reason I was in a pink mood.  I had some leftover spray enamel in pink.  I had used the enamel to make colorful bud vases and candle holders.  Maybe it was a subconscious thought since October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and many people are now wearing pink ribbons and t-shirts.  Or maybe I just wanted to express myself.

 I had an idea to do a bold graphic image on the magazine holder.  The holder is quite tall, so I decided to divide up the space a bit by painting a rectangle of a lighter pink in the center and outlining the rectangle in red.  The pink was a little much for me, but I wanted to keep the different colors to a minimum.  Since I was going for a bold graphic look, I wanted a very simple design with clean lines.

I didn’t feel like painting on this one from scratch, so I used a vintage black and white graphic.   This is a copyright free image from Dover Publications.  I just blew up the image and traced the image using tracing paper.  The tracing paper I’m talking about is the same type that it used for tracing sewing patterns.  It is sort of like carbon paper.  You tape the image to the back of the tracing paper and trace with a pencil or pen.  The flower image is the same on the front and back of the holder. 

 I used red acrylic paint on my traced lines.  I filled in the flowers in with blue and the leaves in with green.   Since I painted with acrylics over enamel, I sprayed the entire surface with lacquer to seal the paint.  I wouldn’t want all my hard work rubbing off.

Viola!  A very pink magazine holder with a lovely bold graphic on the front and back. 

You don’t have to be a great artist to put an image onto a piece of painted furniture.  If you can’t find a stencil or stamp that you really love, you can always trace a favorite (public-domain) image.