A Hand Painted Upcycle

I created outlines, brought my designs to life with color and it quickly became one of my favorite pastimes.

Until.

Well, until my junior year of college, when my major changed and I started dating my husband and I was working all the time..and...and...and...I stopped.

Sure, once we moved into our first apartment, I began embellishing our walls and decorating furniture, but I never returned to my earlier freehand days.

Instead, I leaned into easier ways of achieving that whimsical, painted look, using stencils, transfers or paint inlays, since my confidence in my abilities had waned.

THIS WAS MY LATEST ATTEMPT AT FAKING THE LOOK

However, to be honest, sometimes, I have a design in mind that I can't find on the shelf...so this week, I finally decided to dust the old skills off and ease back into it. 

Of course, it's been a really, really long time since I've hand painted anything. So I decided to use a pattern and the old cardboard box trick to project it onto my palette. 

Which was this old wooden fireplace screen.


Do you remember it? I pulled it out of the trash years ago, with the intention of painting it. In the end, I chickened out and gave it a much simpler makeover.

One that never sat right with me, so after that first season, it was retired to the storage room and it's been living there ever since.

How To Hand Paint Furniture The Easy Way

Now before you go away, thinking that this DIY requires some advanced drawing and painting experience, I urge you to stick around.

This is a beginner craft, I promise, and a technique that can be used to decorate just about anything.

Even if you've never picked up a brush before, you can do this.

Creating Your Design

In fact, I started in Canva. I found a design I liked and printed it out on four separate sheets, so it was easier to transfer, but sizing is up to you.


Next, I trimmed away the excess with my handy paper cutter.

And taped my design together.

Then I taped it to the table, grabbed a piece of plastic and taped it over the floral design.

My plastic was leftover from my shrink wrap basket. It was sturdier than saran wrap, but that would work, too.


Once everything was locked firmly in place, I used a black sharpie marker and traced over the paper design.

How To Make A Homemade Projector

Then I grabbed a cardboard box to make an old fashioned projector.

No need to buy anything fancy, a box and a flashlight do the same job as the expensive store bought ones.

Basically, I cut out the front and back of the box, leaving only the sides to support it.

Then I taped my plastic, with the design drawn on it, to one of the open sides, making sure it was really taut.


I positioned my box on another box, so it would be the right height, and used the flashlight from my phone, which was placed behind the other open side, to project my design onto the fireplace screen.

I moved the box closer to the screen and then further away to adjust the sizing of my flowers and center them. I also shut the blinds. A dark room makes it easier to see the projection.

The last step was simply to use a pencil to trace the projected image onto the fireplace screen.

Fabulous.

My pencil strokes were a bit smudged in spots, but that wasn't really an issue. I used a good eraser to remove most of them and got ready to paint.

Painting The Design

I started by mixing two different greens, basic acrylic craft paint, and began with the leaves and the vines. In most spots I used the solid mixed color.

To add a little more depth, in other spots, I didn't completely mix the paint, so the brush was loaded with both colors and when I applied it the leaves were shaded naturally.

I didn't worry about where my light was coming from or how realistic each leaf looked, I just had fun coloring in the lines.


I was pretty excited about my progress up to this point, but painting that urn was the nerve wracking part for me, so again, I cheated.

I asked Google Gemini to look at my design and color it for me. While I wasn't fond of the reds it chose for the flowers, even after I gave it some direction, it did give me a blueprint for the urn.


Honestly, if I really wanted to, I could've asked AI to make my design into a paint by number and go from there. It's just another quick suggestion for hesitant artists.

Then I moved onto the roses.


I returned to the same technique I used for the leaves. Two colors, some mixed to form an entirely new color, some brush strokes with the two colors loaded unevenly.

In the end, I was pretty proud of my hand painted fireplace screen. Is it perfect? Certainly not.

But it's a whole lot closer to what I'd envisioned all those years ago.

It brightens up the living room for summer, covering up that big black hole, with a cheerful painted floral arrangement.

One that I did all by myself.

No stencils, or transfers or messy inlays.

Yes, I needed a little hand holding, but I think it was a great way to ease back into a hobby I loved so long ago.


And a fabulous way to start a brand new hobby.

If you're a hand painted furniture fan.


And let's face it, who isn't?

😉

Would you try this technique?

 Happy Painting, Friends!