Full Story - Beginning a New Painting Technique - Rescued Nightable

This is a story of a sad little night stand in need of some TLC and a decorative technique I've wanted to use.

Above:  Inspiration - A small mirror framed with an intriguing cut wood motif.  This is actually a scanned image of the mirror which was small enough to fit on my scanner's bed.

Above:  I applied green painter's tape to the area on the nightstand where I wanted the shape to appear.  I printed out the scanned image of the frame to use as a pattern.  With scissors I cut out and then tacked the paper pattern over the tape.  Following the lines of the shape with an X-Acto knife, I incised through the paper and the tape.

Above:  After incising all the outlines of the motif paper pattern, I removed the paper pattern from the tape and began pulling tape off the areas of the nightstand that would receive paint.

Above:  More tape removal.  In this particular project, I wanted more than just the outline of the pattern, I wanted to include the openwork on the original frame.

Above:  More tape removal keeping in mind which areas to block the subsequent paint and which will receive it.

Above:  The desired masque in tape remains.  Note that I gave the entire nightstand a sanding beforehand to roughen the surface for better adhesion of the paint.

Above:  I used a burnishing tool (a spoon works well for this) to press along the cut edges of the tape masque to secure them against paint seepage.

Above:  Painting begins...

Above:  The first coat of paint.

Above:  After the final coat of paint dried, I use the X-Acto knife once again to incise around the edges of the tape masque.  This time the incisions were made to freshen and create a distinct separation between the tape masque and the paint and prevent the paint from pealing off with the tape.

Above:  All the tape has been removed.  I gently feathered the edges of the design by sanding thus preventing a harsh paint line.  I did not paint the top of the table, as I wanted the top and the new motif to match in finish, but I did sand, stain and apply clear coat for durability.

Above:  A big part of the necessary TLC on this piece was the modification of the front panel on which the decorative motif was applied.  When the nightstand came to me, the original drawer box no longer existed and the drawer front was very sloppily glued to cover the drawer compartment.  We carefully  removed the glued drawer front and cleaned off all the messy dried glue from it and the compartment surround.  We dug into our stash of antique hardware for the two hinges you see in the photo above and installed them on the original drawer front to make a fold-down panel so the compartment can still be used for storage.

Above:  A new life begins for this little piece...