Decorating a Wooden Tray in the French Vintage Style

I offer to perform a tray in the style of French vintage, and the process is similar for any other smooth wooden surface.

For this you need:

- wooen blank

- stencil

- brush

- acrylic paint — white, black

- printout

- sand paper from 120 to 150, 600

- acrylic varnish

Step 1

Sandpaper the tray. Collect all dust with a damp cloth. If a workpiece has minor cracks, decide whether it is necessary to coat them. In fact, French vintage style is "shabby", so small defects on the surface will not damage the style.

Step 2

Paint the surface from all sides black with acrylic paint. If the paint is very thick, it can be a little diluted. Use a brush, sponge or roller. After drying, touch your hand across the surface: if it is rough, sandpaper it. If necessary, paint once again (e.g., some paint has peeled off when sanding).

Step 3

It is good to paint the tray white acrylic paint overn the black layer. Perhaps, for smooth colour you will need to put two layers (with an intermediate drying).

Step 4

Remove the white paint with a wet towel creating shabby effect. Think about where in reality they could appear? So make the effort in the palces. Please note that the tray will have a black-and-white print, so leave this place white.

The entire surface is varnished in two layers (with an intermediate drying).

Step 5

Prepare a printout. It should be reflected like in a mirror because it will be gluing with the right side down. It is especially important if the picture has inscriptions and logos. The printout is made on an ordinary office paper.

Fit the picture to the desired size, put on a file with the face up and spray with water — let it become a little wet.

Step 6

Then pat the printout with a dry towel. Coat the front side of the paper (words and pics) and the tray with the acrylic varnish. Attach the printout to the surface, well smooth with a cloth, spatula or roller. Dry.

Step 7

Now you need to roll the white paper. To do this, slightly wet the paper and begin to rub, revealing the picture. Wet the paper in small areas and work with them.

Step 8

Decorate the sides of the tray with stencils. Apply black paint using a half dry brush with dabbing movements.

Step 9

Varnish the tray and dry well.

You can also add a crackle mesh, three-dimensional stencil ornament, findings. This time I limited myself with the simplest options. So Igot such a set:

Thank you for your attention! Wish you all creative mood :)