Shabby Chic
What is Shabby chic style? This style has a very unique look that can sometimes be hard to describe. It involves a lot of vintage pieces and accessories, as well as distressed finishes. Many people see shabby chic as a way to decorate their homes in a very cost-effective way. By using old or secondhand items, you can create a look that is your own.
Most furniture flippers would say that the Shabby Chic style is quite easy to achieve through simple yet effective techniques. If you’re looking for some inspiration, then keep reading for some ideas on how to use WoodUbend products to achieve the shabby chic look for yourself!
Time to Mix
First up, we needed to create a thick, texturized paste that will act as the base of the mirror frame. We achieved this by mixing a scoop of Sea Spray, which is a texture additive along with Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth and a squeeze of Titebond Quick and Thick glue. When the paste started to look like lumpy porridge, we knew it was time to stop mixing as we had our desired consistency.
The porridge-like paste was smothered across the mirror’s frame a section at a time, to avoid the paste drying out.
Top Tip – Add a glob of Retarder to the mix to extend the life of the paste and avoid it drying out!
Recycled WoodUbend Appliques
Do you like to recycle? I know we sure do at WoodUbend HQ! It feels good to reuse decorative mouldings and trims from old forgotten projects. All our 3rd generation packaging is recyclable as we strive to help the environment as much as we can.
By recycling, you can also avoid buying new materials and save money in the process. So why not start recycling some of your old projects?
The WoodUbend mouldings we are using for this project are being recycled from an old door that we upcycled a few years ago. This means the mouldings are already pre-painted in watercolours and ready for their next DIY home decor project!
The heat bendable appliques can be removed from previous projects by using a heating appliance, such as a hairdryer or a heat gun and a scraper. We always advise you to never throw away any of your WoodUbend or Posh Chalk products as you never know when they might come in handy!
Click here to watch a tutorial on how to remove a WoodUbend Moulding.
We heat the bendable mouldings until they are flexible and then apply a good quality wood glue to design 2152 before pressing it into the surface.
To avoid the paste drying up we completed the mirror one section at a time. The next WoodUbend moulding to adhere to the mirror frame is a corner pediment 2093.
Wooden Properties
Did you know that the 3rd generation WoodUbend mouldings and trims have all the same properties of wood? This means you can sand, stain, paint, pre-paint, drill, wax and cut them. The real magic happens when you heat the WoodUbend appliques – they become flexible!
As the bendable wooden mouldings have all the properties of wood, we heated and sliced the decorative moulding 2171 in half with a craft knife. The half-moon design was adhered to both sides of the mirror frame to make it symmetrical.
Next up, WoodUbend appliques 465 and 2102 are applied to the texturized paste using the 5 simple steps to apply WoodUbend.
- Heat your WoodUbend Moulding (with an electric griddle, hairdryer or heat gun).
- Apply good quality wood glue to the entire back of the surface.
- Adhere the moulding to your chosen surface (WoodUbend adheres to almost any surface).
- Reheat the Moulding and give it an extra push to allow the air bubbles to escape.
- Clean up any excess wood glue with a wet wipe, wet paintbrush or cotton bud.
Creating your own Watercolours
After attaching all the recycled mouldings to the surface, we realized the surface of the mirror frame was a bit larger than we thought! As we didn’t have enough pre-painted mouldings to fill the project, we decided to decorate some of our 3rd generation mouldings fresh out of their new packaging!
The new 3rd generation WoodUbend mouldings had to be decorated in a similar way to the previous appliques. To create the watercolour effect we mixed some paint colours similar to before. The main colours used from the Dixie Belle Paint company are ‘Muscadine Wine‘ and ‘Collard Green‘. A few drops of this paint, mixed with water helped us achieve our desired look.
After the faint, muted colour tones are applied we heavily dry brushed the mouldings with a drop cloth to highlight the details.
Finishing Touches
Once the mirror frame was full of decorative mouldings it was time to add a base layer of muted colour to fit in with our Shabby Chic look. The entire frame is covered with a very watered-down ‘Mud puddle‘ by Dixie Belle to prepare for the finishing touches.
Dixie Belle Golden Gem Mousse is dry brushed over the mirror frame, including the mouldings and the gorgeously cracked texturized paste. The watery brown colour helps to age the project so that it is in keeping with our chosen style.
If you’re like us, you love a good DIY project. We were so excited when we came across this old, plain mirror frame. It was the perfect way to update an old piece of furniture and add some personality to our home. We hope you enjoyed reading about our experience and that it helped inspire you to tackle your own shabby chic mirror makeover project!
If you haven’t already why not join our WoodUbend and Posh Chalk Artisan Creation Group on Facebook to see more techniques and inspiration from the WoodUbend & Posh Chalk family?
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