I was recently given two old pieces of furniture from Ikea. The owner was going to take them to the tip but I like to try and recycle things when I can and this furniture fitted into my house just not with it’s present look. They had been unfinished bare wood treated with a clear wax, although they still felt quite rough to the touch. I would love to show you the before pics but unfortunately I didn’t remember to take any.

I sanded them and then finished the tops with a darker briwax. I painted the bases white with paint tester pots. Finally came the fun stage where I got to play about with designs. I have accumulated quite a lot of decorative paper when in Italy and decided to finally put it to use, it always seemed too special for wrapping presents and then being thrown away. For the first cupboard I decided to cut out really simple house shapes from a variety of Venetian papers. I arranged the pieces in a design I liked and this is the end result.

For the second cupboard I cut out street scenes from paper bought in Florence. Each side had a different scene upon it.

The pictures were stuck on with PVA glue and then varnished afterwards with a quick drying matt varnish. Once this was dry I sanded it with very fine paper. I washed off the dust and varnished again. I did this process another four times until I could hardly feel where the paper pieces were.

These are now two very useful items that cost hardly anything to refurbish, mainly some time.