Spruce up old furniture with decorative stickers & decals; the Forest Grove ReStore can help
When people think of reimagining furniture, they often think of complicated, messy processes, like stripping paint and varnish, repainting and revarnishing, measuring, sawing, sanding and more. All of those techniques can be great ways to make an old or old-fashioned piece of furniture into something new and unique, but not all of us have the time, space and skills for such an undertaking..
There is an easier way to spruce up old furniture for those folks who don't have the time or skills for the traditional way of reimagining furniture: with decals (stickers) and vinyl wraps.
Self-adhesive, decorative decals can be put it on most any type of wood furniture, from tables and chairs to shelves and cabinets, even doors. Some people add the stickers to a cleaned up piece of furniture, as is, and some paint the furniture in a bright color, without stripping off the old paint or varnish, and then add stickers. Either way, it's an easy way to renew furniture and personalize furniture in a way that makes it unique and fits your own taste and design.
Even just adding decorative stickers to doors can change the style of an entire room.
Stickers can also be used to cover damage or discoloration on wood.
You can use stickers just for the top of furniture, such as a new cover for an entire desk or the top of a chest of drawers. You can just them to cover the front of drawers or cabinet doors and then leave the rest of the furniture undecorated. You can also use decals as new borders on the front, the sides and or the top of furniture.
There are so many designs to choose from. You can choose stickers with patterns that:
imitate light or dark wood, marble.
evoke a particular style, like Victorian borders, art nouveau, art deco or more.
represent tropical leaves, flowers or other plants
represent vintage advertisements
The choice of patterns on stickers for furniture is huge. You will want to do a lot of research on all that's available. And the nice part of stickers is that you can buy a variety of different designs you think you might like and then decide, in your own home, which would be best.
At the left you see an example of what wood furniture reimagined with a fresh coat of paint and decals can look like in the Forest Grove ReStore, as well as some decals you can purchase. This wooden cabinet, donated at some point by someone in our commuity, was redone by one of our talented ReStore staff.
Come by and have a look at the piece in-person, and if you don’t already have furniture or a door in your house you want to reimagine, revisit the ReStore regularly, particularly the warehouse beyond our main showroom, to find a piece to refinish, reimagine and remake in your own unique style.
The Forest Grove ReStore is open Mondays through Saturdays, 9 to 5, and sales help support the work of West Tuality Habitat for Humanity, serving Western Washington County.
Have you refurnished or reimagined something you bought from the Forest Grove ReStore? Send us a photo or two of the item (before and after is great!) and a bit about what you did / how you did it at photos@westtualityhabitat.org and we may feature it here on our web site.
