I have a confession. I am a terrible procrastinator. Or rather, I’m a fantastic procrastinator and that often puts me in a terrible situation. I used to think I was just a slow painter. It is true I paint to really enjoy the process and don’t rush through it. But… somewhat recently I realized it’s not that I am a slow painter. I’m just a procrastinator.
So here’s how I fix that. It’s not enough for me to set artificial time goals for myself (ie I’ll get this table done this week because I scribbled it on the to-do list). I need hard, extrinsic, someone else set the time line motivation. I need accountability.
So when I was asked to collaborate on a blog post with Jane of Morning Dew Creations I jumped on it. This is the accountability I needed. There was a hard deadline, requirements Jane asked me to meet and a responsibility to someone other than myself. If I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain, I’d be letting Jane down and messing up the publication of her blog post. So although I still did procrastinate and that stool sat there in my workshop staring at me for about a week asking “what are you waiting for?”, I am happy to say I did, in fact, finish it on time.
Facebook Marketplace find
The stool was a Facebook Marketplace purchase. It looks hand made, maybe someone’s wood shop project. I love the size of it as it’s quite large. Not to mention I have a thing for stools, benches, small tables.
The first thing I did after cleaning it was to give it a quick coat of Debi’s Design Diary DIY Paint Summer Crush. I let that dry then gave it a coat of Kissing Booth which is quite possibly one of my favorite DIY Paint colors. I knew I was painting with multiple layers and I was giving it a distress so I didn’t need to get full coverage with any of my colors.
After allowing the Kissing Booth to dry I used a wood block tool to apply the color Monet’s Garden which is a beautiful green. The purpose of the wood block is to give me an uneven paint application creating a somewhat “chippy paint” appearance. It also creates some texture. I purchased mine at Joann Fabrics several years ago but this is the same one.
Layers of Summer Crush, Kissing Booth and Monet’s Garden from Debi’s Design Diary DIY Paint
Once dry, I gave my stool a distressing using wet distress technique. That is nothing more than rubbing with a damp lint free cloth to expose the layers of paint.
After giving the top of the stool a quick coat of DIY Paint Big Top and letting it dry THOROUGHLY (as in at the very least several hours and at best overnight), I applied part of the Wander furniture transfer from Iron Orchid Designs. It is easy to cut the transfers to any size you need with a pair of scissors making sure you leave the backing on the transfer while you cut it.
The Bohemia stamp from Iron Orchid Designs
I decided to give my stool a little extra something because that’s the way I operate. I chose to use a couple pieces from the Bohemia stamp also from Iron Orchid Designs. I used Stayz-On ink in black because that’s what I had in my stash. IOD has an ink in their product line and you could also use paint. I find though that for small, detailed stamps ink works better for giving a clearer impression.
Finally, I gave the entire stool including the underside which I decided to leave Kissing Booth a coat of DIY Paint Big Top.
To see what Jane from Morning Dew Creations did with her stool you can visit her blog post here.
For a full video tutorial for my stool makeover, please visit my YouTube channel here and subscribe for more!
The finished project.