How to decorate a polished wardrobe. Methods for creating a do-it-yourself closet decor. Decoration with vinyl stickers and stained glass film

In modern life, nothing stands still. Tastes, preferences, home interiors are changing. Therefore, often after the repair is completed, the main question becomes what to do with old furniture, especially cabinets.

You can, of course, purchase a new model of a chic wardrobe that would harmoniously fit into the new design of the room, but if the previous version of the design is made of high-quality material or natural wood, you should not rush to throw it away. It is quite possible to give such furniture a chance for a new life, for this you just have to be patient and learn how to update an old cabinet with the help of decorations.

Today, there are many ways to upgrade items. It can be painting, painting, decoupage or a sticker of a film that imitates various materials. Each of the restoration methods will not require large material costs.

Thanks to such modern finishing technologies, the cabinet will acquire an original look, and decorating with an ornament or pattern will allow you to install the structure in any room. It should be noted that everyone can try himself as an independent designer, choosing the type of design and color scheme to his taste.

Benefits of manual design

New furniture is always fashionable, beautiful and prestigious. It can be purchased both in finished form and made to order. But recently, most of the owners of the house prefer to pick up paints, brushes and start creating individual masterpieces from old furniture models. And for good reason, as there are many reasons not to throw outdated cabinets in the landfill.

Self-restoration has many advantages, these are:

Stylish. The main reason for replacing furniture is its inconsistency with the new style. So, for example, if the room is decorated in the direction of country or Provence, then even a new purchased wardrobe will have to be “customized” to the general appearance of the room. Therefore, thanks to the hand-made style, the cabinet in use will not yield to an expensive novelty from the store.

Fashionable. Recently, it has become popular not only to be the owner of restored furniture, but also to be able to transform old items with your own hands. Using your creative imagination, you can make a real work of art out of unnecessary "junk".
Exclusively. As a rule, all models of cabinets are mass-produced, so there are often hundreds of similar analogues in stores. But if the structure is restored independently, then it will be in one copy. In addition, cabinets can be decorated with an original technique in the form of a palette fusion. After styling the furniture in a suitable color, the interior of the room is either bright or neutral, it all depends on personal tastes.
economically. You can't buy a new cabinet for free. As for the updated type of design, it will be affordable and economical. For example, to purchase a can of paint, a roll of sandpaper and accessories, you need some money. In addition, restoration is considered a great way to relax.

How and what to decorate

Over time, all cabinets lose their original appearance and become irrelevant for housing design. But don't throw them away right away. It is quite possible to give such outdated models aesthetics and originality. In order to decorate furniture at home, it is enough to be patient and purchase the necessary materials.

In modern decoration, the following types of restoration are distinguished:

Painting. This is the most efficient and simple solution. It is possible to update the cabinet by painting in various ways, using not only a chic palette, but also many options for applying paint. In order for the cabinet to be transformed, it is enough to completely cover it with one color or to update only certain parts: sides, doors, drawers, handles. Ombre-colored designs look unusual when dull shades of colors smoothly turn into a rich tone.

For this type of finish, as a rule, acrylic solutions are used, they do not leave a smell, they are easily mixed and washed off.

Stickers and stencils. Thanks to a simple set of items, you can create a beautiful decor yourself, without having the ability of an artist. Sophisticated floral arrangements, geometric shapes will quickly be transferred to the surface of the furniture and help it fit into the modern design of the house. Decor elements are applied both to a simply prepared surface and to a pre-painted background. The lines on the cabinets are created with adhesive tape.

Wallpaper restoration. At the end of the repair in the house, there is no need to rush to throw away the remnants of wallpaper, as they will be an excellent material for restoring an old cabinet, hiding its many shortcomings. Paper clippings are applied to the painted surface. They can be placed both on the outer parts of the structure and inside on the shelves.

To ensure that the appearance of the furniture remains unchanged for a long time, it is recommended to additionally cover the finished product with a transparent varnish.

Decoupage. It is an unusual type of design, in which the pattern on the cabinet smoothly merges with its surface, the decoupage of doors with napkins looks especially beautiful. For decoration, the simplest napkins with a pattern are suitable. In this case, the composition can turn out to be contrasting, clear or with gaps. This method of decoration is often chosen for a wardrobe and a furniture wall, but if there is an outdated model of a chest of drawers in the room, then it can also be updated.

During the application of napkins, it is important to ensure that wrinkles and bubbles do not form, and upon completion of work, the furniture is covered with a protective layer of varnish.

Textile. To give a second "breath" to the closet, fabric is also often used in the finishing process. For lovers of everything stylish and fashionable, designers advise choosing lace decoration. It is worth noting that each type of matter will correspond to a certain design style. For example, silk is used for a more sophisticated interior, and linen is useful for Provence. The fabric is glued to the surface of the cabinet with PVA glue.

Mosaic. This type of decor looks aesthetically pleasing and bright, suitable for art deco style. Broken multi-colored glass, ceramics are used as the main material for restoration, sometimes the cabinet is decorated with a mirror. Particles for the future drawing are glued to the cabinet with ordinary glue.

Gilding. The furniture is covered with "golden" foil and fixed with varnish.

Aging. If the room looks in Provence style, then the furniture should be quite “old”. In design, this is considered a special art direction, in which the cabinet gets an antique vintage look. Wooden structures look especially special, painted with a facade, using a dry brush. If you want to create more noticeable reliefs on the surface of the cabinet, you can first cover it with acrylic, and then “walk” with a regular sponge moistened with glaze.

Photo restoration. Application of a film with a photo print.

How to repaint the product

The unpresentable appearance of an old cabinet can be really fixed by repainting. At the same time, the furniture will not only become “fresh”, but also original. It is this type of restoration that is considered the most popular, as it opens up many ideas that make dreams come true. In order for the update process to proceed correctly, you must complete the following steps:

Training. The surface of the wooden cabinet should be well leveled and sanded. This also applies to structures made of chipboard. To do this, a thin layer of putty and primer is applied. Thus, on the tree it will be possible to hide all visible defects in the form of chips and cracks. After that, the furniture is carefully polished.

Coloring. Selected color and brushes. Often, a special spray tool is also used to apply paint. It evenly distributes the color tone under pressure and makes the work neat. It is worth noting that the paint should be applied evenly in several layers, so the cabinet will get a rich tone and the result of the restoration will last for a long time. After the paint is completely dry, it can be additionally opened with a glossy or shiny varnish.

If you want to get an antique cabinet model, you can use color tinting for wood. Prior to this, the wooden structure is carefully cleaned, puttied and opened with a colored solution.

DIY glass decor at home

In many houses you can find a wardrobe with glass doors. It is considered an excellent item for home design, as glass is a decorative element that is easy to work with.

To date, there are two popular ways to finish it:

technique of painting with liquid glass;
decoration without the use of paints.

In addition, masters often use a combination of glass with metal, polymer clay, plasticine and other materials. In order to make the glass look unusual, you will need to prepare sea salt, unground coffee beans, glue, acrylic paints. The coffee beans are typically glued either in a predetermined order or randomly. It is preferable to apply the composition to the bottom and top of the glass.

Cabinet doors will also look stylish if they are decorated with sea salt. To do this, the outer part of the glass is covered with glue, and then salt is applied and waited for complete drying.

So that during operation such a decoration does not lose its attractiveness, it is fixed with liquid glass or transparent varnish.

No less original decorate glass with plasticine. Before starting the design, you will need to draw pattern templates, choose its color. Then a picture is formed from different shades of plasticine. Such a decoration will fit well into the interior of children's rooms, it will help to unusually complement the marine theme, where sea salt will turn into drops of water, plasticine into fish and algae, and shells will serve as the seabed.

As for the finishing with broken glass, it is considered a real masterpiece and will decorate the doors of any cabinet. Broken fragments of the material are glued with a special glue.

Before applying patterns, you will need to prepare glue, broken glass and acrylic paints, while the order of applying decoration elements is thought out in advance. First of all, the work surface is covered with a thin layer of glue, particles of decor are fixed and they are completely dry. Then the resulting ornament can be painted with acrylics and varnished.

To decorate any piece of furniture, special skills are not needed. Master classes, tips, a lot of photos from the Internet can inspire even an amateur to seriously transform furniture. So, an old wardrobe, which is kept only because it is a pity to throw it away, can be updated and remade for the interior. The most common way is decoupage, but there are other possibilities for transformation.

This piece of furniture will be processed in the same way as other surfaces for decoupage. But there are still some subtleties. The basic set of necessary materials includes: acrylic varnish and acrylic paints, decoupage glue (in the absence of such, you can use PVA glue), napkins and brushes.

The decoupage technique with which you have to update the closet is as follows:

If the cabinet is polished, acrylic paint will not adhere as well to this surface, but the situation can be corrected by repeated subsequent application of varnish.
If the cabinet is not wooden, then the surface to be decorated must be treated with fat-dissolving agents (ordinary dishwashing detergent will do).
Several layers of acrylic paint are applied to the surface to be modified.
Next, you have to stick the picture: for this, two light layers are put on from the napkin, only the top one remains.
The surface is carefully smeared with glue, a pattern is glued onto it, and carefully straightened with a sponge.
The pattern can be additionally fixed along the edges with a brush with glue. When the napkin dries completely, the surface is covered with acrylic varnish.
The second layer of varnish is applied only after the first has dried well.
To give the effect of aging, which decoupage is so famous for, you can apply a special craquelure varnish. It creates small cracks on the surface.

With your own hands, you can choose any pattern that adorns the surface of the cabinet. It can be special decoupage paper, wallpaper and fabric.

For kitchen cabinets - decoupage is just a godsend. An old headset can be updated with your own hands, and it will be cheap. Simple plant motifs, acrylic paints in pastel colors or delicate herbal ones will be a good background. Acrylic paint is an excellent primer. Such a kitchen set will be original, fresh, and it will convey the atmosphere of home comfort in the best possible way. And you can start your decoupage experiments by updating a simple stool, so that after getting the hang of it, you can move on to transforming cabinets with your own hands.

Do-it-yourself decoupage of old furniture (video)

Restoring a closet with fabric

Furniture decoupage includes many details, but sometimes individual components of decoupage turn into a special technique. You can decorate the closet with fabric. For lovers of tenderness, natural elegance, country motifs in the interior, this method will be good.

Do-it-yourself fabric upholstery of the cabinet is as follows:

Separate parts of furniture, drawers, doors or other ledges can be upholstered with fabric, under which it is necessary to put thin foam rubber.
The fabric is fixed on the back of the door or drawer - this is done using a furniture stapler. Liquid nails are acceptable.
The fabric is chosen to match the wallpaper, then the combination will be really harmonious and elegant. You should choose dense fabrics that do not deform from stretching.

Often it is such a restoration that transforms the chest of drawers.

Restoration of the cabinet with wallpaper

With your own hands, you can also give a new life to the closet, while using the remnants of wallpaper.

An old-fashioned wardrobe is painted with more than one layer of acrylic paint. The paint should have a color whose response is in the wallpaper pattern. Many masters restore cabinets with two doors in this way, very old, perhaps not even homemade. Often master classes show how to transform a locker, for example, decommissioned from a doctor's office. They are low, their doors have a relief structure.

Either the front of the cabinets, or the doors, or the inner wall are pasted over with wallpaper. Restoration can not only put a thing back into operation, but also make it the most fashionable piece of furniture.

Antique closet restoration

Decoupage includes elements of aging furniture, but there are also separate techniques that allow you to decorate this or that antique item. Such vintage furniture can decorate a classic interior, or a retro interior.

With your own hands, you can gracefully age the closet, and the following tricks will help with this:

First of all, the object must be freed from paint, for this it is better not to find a grinder. After that, the furniture is degreased with a solvent.
The next step is to apply a layer of primer. You do not need to try to damage the cabinet with your own hands so that cracks appear on it. Craquelure varnish, which is applied as the next layer after the primer has dried, will do just fine.

Coniferous cabinets can be updated as follows: treat the surface with a metal brush to create characteristic furrows. Then the wood is covered with dark paint, and until the paint has dried, a cloth is passed over the furniture. This process is called patting.

The restoration is completed by applying varnish.

Decorating furniture with your own hands. Master class (video)

All of the above methods, which are easy to do with your own hands, can be used fragmentarily. A decoupage detail or wallpaper upholstery of a small ledge on a cabinet - all this serves as a decoration for furniture that needs to be updated.

Good luck with your transformation!

Creative ideas for decorating old furniture (photo)

Old and boring pieces of furniture will sparkle with new colors if they are decorated a little. For example, you can breathe life into a closet, chest of drawers or wardrobe that has lost its former gloss.

Preparatory stage before decorating the cabinet

Parsing. Remove all doors from a piece of furniture, remove drawers and shelves from it. In short, take it apart. Further work will be carried out with each of them separately.
Hardware update. Thoroughly clean all metal parts of dirt and rust or even replace them with new ones, depending on their condition and your design ideas.
Surface preparation. Doors, shelves, body completely clean of the old coating and dirt with a spatula, sandpaper, brush, rag and water.

Then carefully inspect all surfaces for chips and cracks. Defects must be repaired. With the help of mastic, eliminate minor damage, for more serious putty will be used.

After a course of restoration activities, you can start decorating with your own hands.

REFERENCE! Well-chosen fittings can become part of the cabinet's decorative solution. Plastic, faience, copper, a huge variety of shapes and sizes - the choice is yours.

Ways to decorate the cabinet with your own hands with a photo

There are different approaches to decorating furniture.

Wallpapering

This easy-to-perform, quick and inexpensive way of decorating has significant artistic potential. To implement it, you will need:

Fragments of wallpaper. The most important part is to choose a wallpaper with a good pattern or pattern. They should not merge with the walls of the room, surpassing them in color saturation by at least a few tones.
Wallpaper glue. Apply it to the prepared surface of the furniture, place the wallpaper on top and smooth it so that there are no air bubbles and wrinkles anywhere.
PVA glue and water-based varnish. After gluing, cover the wallpaper with a neat layer of PVA glue diluted with water. Apply the final layer of varnish.

IMPORTANT! Before you start gluing, make sure that the combination of wallpaper fragments you have come up with looks harmonious. Draw a detailed sketch or attach what you are going to stick to the doors.

Stucco pattern

A three-dimensional pattern of plaster on the surface of the wardrobe focuses attention on this piece of furniture, turns it into a highlight of the room. Technically, such a pattern is easy to perform using:

stencil. Make it yourself from cardboard, plastic or thick film. Often they use floral or geometric ornaments, ethnic patterns, stylized images of animals and birds.
Masking tape. Take the resulting blank and fix it with tape on the surface of the cabinet.
Plaster. Apply decorative plaster on furniture surfaces, over the stencil.

IMPORTANT! The stencil must be removed before the plaster dries!

After drying, treat the resulting composition with paint or acrylic varnish.

Cloth closet decor

Fabric can be a good alternative to wallpaper. Textiles also have a wide range of colors and prints, which make up very expressive and spectacular compositions. To fix it on the surface of the wardrobe you will need:

PVA glue, furniture stapler or liquid nails. In a word, how to attach fabric blanks to the closet.
Varnish. To process the resulting surface. However, this step is sometimes neglected. After all, textiles often have a characteristic, pleasant to the touch texture that you want to keep.

Decoupage technique

Decoupage is the transfer of patterns and patterns from ordinary napkins to a prepared surface, followed by fixing with varnish. Create a whole collage on the doors and body of your clothing furniture in this way.

IMPORTANT! This technique is best done on a light base. There are no traces of glue on this, and napkins can be easier to pick up. If the cabinet has dark doors and walls, paint it white, beige or cream before decorating.

With the help of these two ingredients, a very interesting effect of cracked paint is achieved. Furniture treated in this way takes on the appearance of rare, exclusive antiques. To achieve this transformation you will need:

Craquelure varnish. It is applied in two layers. After the first, wait until it partially dries and thickens. And only then paint over the surface again.
Gilding. Rub the gilding into the cracks in the lacquer with a sponge.
Matt lacquer. It is needed for the final processing of surfaces in order to securely fix the resulting coating with characteristic golden cracks.

Mosaic decor

Another type of embossed and bright furniture design is mosaic. It is made from fragments of ceramic products, buttons, shells, glass, pebbles and glue. Any small multi-colored elements from which you can add a pattern or picture will do.

IMPORTANT! Before fixing the mosaic pieces, mark their location on the plane of the cabinet - lay out the entire composition without using glue. And only after making sure that it looks harmonious, start work.

Aging

One of the methods of artificial aging of furniture - craquelure - has already been described above. However, it is not the only possible solution. There are other options. For example, painting a cabinet with a large dry brush with a minimum of paint will create the effect of a peeling surface.

Mirror decoration

Mirror mosaic, curly elements cut from reflective materials, stripes, geometric shapes - all this can become a decoration for your closet. Such fragments are often used to hide furniture defects, while visually expanding the space.

What to consider when choosing a cabinet decor option

The interior of the room, the features of the closet, your preferences - these are the three fundamental things that influence the choice of how to decorate old furniture.

The interior sets the basic style, color scheme. For example, classic rooms go well with artificially aged objects, plaster patterns, gilding, and restrained shades. Frivolous country will take bright ethnic or floral patterns, textiles, decoupage technique. Laconic modern design solutions, such as hi-tech or loft, are perfectly complemented by furniture with mirror elements and mosaics.

Invent, try, decorate - and your house will be transformed, delighting you and surprising your guests.

If your apartment has a functional closet or rack, looking at which there is longing, it's time to think about updating it. It is easier with wooden ones - they can be painted, coated with a matte tint varnish or create a semblance of an old patina ...

But, alas, most of the cabinet furniture that surrounds us is made of chipboard or MDF, and pasting it with a new film (as they did 15-20 years ago) is now considered a sign of bad taste. But the soul demands to make a decision, and now we find ourselves in the store - in search of new models. Sometimes they are no better in quality than those that we have, but they have the main advantage - they are NEW in LOOK, different, different in shade or number of shelves.

But what if we postpone the purchase for the future and think about how to give old cabinets and racks a fresh look - such that pride in your creativity is born when looking at them? American decorators and do-it-yourself enthusiasts have already come up with a great solution: they update cabinets, sideboards and shelving with leftover wallpaper.

What we liked about this idea:

there are remnants of wallpaper in almost every home;

among these remnants, as a rule, there is a choice - by color and pattern (and if there is not something that you definitely want, buying 1 roll of wallpaper will not make a hole in the family budget);

wallpaper is easy to stick on chipboard or MDF using PVA glue, if desired, you can remove and change the “clothes”;

if desired, you can almost “disguise” a voluminous closet against the background of the walls - just with the help of the same wallpaper;

decor with wallpaper will never look “homemade” (of course, provided that you choose the wallpaper in harmony with the cabinet and glue it carefully), on the contrary, it will have an amazing vintage charm;

updating wooden cabinets with the remnants of wallpaper can be combined with a new color;

and, most importantly, this move is not as straightforward as it might seem at first glance, in this guide we will show a lot of excellent ideas that even experienced decorators will envy.

Watch, learn the techniques, and then update your cabinets, sideboards and shelving with complete confidence in a great result! Give them a chance for a new bright life!

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cabinet doors with wallpaper decor:

Let's start with the facades of cabinets, because their doors are always in sight, and this view should please you. Find wallpaper that matches the closet itself or (if the closet is neutral) the interior of the room. It can be one type of wallpaper or several (for example, if the closet has drawers, photos 2 and 6), you get an analogue of patchwork quilting that is fashionable today.

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how to update cabinets with a colored body with the remnants of wallpaper

And now let's move on to the inner surfaces, the "back" - that visible part of the cabinet, against which things or decor are located. Of course, first of all, this applies to open shelving and cabinets with glass doors. But fans of such solutions also use this technique for completely closed cabinets, trying to please themselves even in such trifles.

reception number 1. in body tone:
If the wardrobe (shelving, sideboard) already has a certain color (shade), the most sophisticated solution would be to update it with wallpaper, in the color scheme of which this shade is also present. See how effective it is.

reception number 2. addition:
Fans of more daring decisions may like the "addition" technique. Its essence is as follows: when choosing wallpaper, you either focus on those parts of the cabinet that differ from the main surface (photo-1), or use wallpaper with a subtle pattern, where the color of the cabinet is represented by small drops (photo-2), or - on shade of wallpaper (photo-4) or - curtains (photo-3) or - to any other color that seems to you harmonious with the shade of the cabinet.

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how to wallpaper white cabinets

Sometimes we buy white cabinets (racks) because they are cheaper than colored ones. However, the presence of such models can also be explained by the passion for furniture in the spirit of shabby chic (often presented in white). In this section, we will show you how to decorate white cabinets with leftover wallpaper with different patterns and at the same time - take into account the style of the interior of the room. See what suits different destinations.

wallpaper with vignettes = classic style:

wallpaper with flowers = romantic style, vintage, country:

geometric wallpaper = modern, 20th century vintage, classic:

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other ideas for decorating cabinets from leftover wallpaper

And here are some more interesting ideas that might catch your attention.
for wooden brown cabinet:
You can paste over the inner walls, shelves and inner doors (photo-1), add decor to the shelves in one of the shades of wallpaper (photo-2) or choose the color of the wallpaper so that the beauty on the shelves (for example, dishes in the sideboard) looks especially contrasting (photo-3).