Continuing on with the fairytale-esque Beauty and the Beast motif – which seem to be taking over the workshop at the moment – this week’s project certainly is a beauty!
Before embarking on any project, preparation is the key to success. With that in mind, I gave the television unit I was working on a thorough clean followed up by two coats of Clear Boss. Properly prepared, I felt confident to get underway.
Time to get bendy.
Luckily, the original design on the front of the unit gave me a guideline to heat and stick the decorative 1338 mouldings down, all joined together by the TR50a trim. Some of the trim was a little long, but this wasn’t an issue, once WoodUbend mouldings are heated they become so pliable and can be cut using a craft knife and even stretched! It’s very important to use a good quality wood glue, the very high wood content of the mouldings means wood glue will yield the best results. Keep the PVA in the cupboard for another project.
Some of the mouldings overlapped the original hinge design, but this wasn’t an issue either. Once heated, the appliques are so pliable, they can be shaped to fit the contours and will adhere to most surfaces – even glass! A quick clean of the excess glue – a slightly damp brush is your friend here – and it was a case of rinse and repeat for the mouldings on the drawer underneath. This time, however, to really elevate the design I planned to incorporate the intricate 1339 centrepiece. We’ll come back to that in a bit.
Swapping up my heat gun for my paint brushes it was time to get green!
I had a whole array of different shades of Dixie Belle greens, from the light Farm House Green right through tho the much darker Collard Green; Kudzo and Mint Julep featured most prominently though. The astute amongst you will note that last week I wanted a regal finish which drew the eyes to the centre of the piece. This week was no different. Following the same method, I kept the darker colours to the outside and blended them into the lighter greens in the middle, topped off with some Cotton for streaky highlights. Normally, I would be a little concerned about bleeding, but remember the preparation I mentioned at the start? Putting in the work beforehand alleviated any worries of a disaster.
A little bit Halloween-ey but I was convinced I could transform this unit into a beauty.
Whilst the front was drying, I could concentrate my efforts on the side. Back out came the heat gun. Having no pre-existing design to follow this time I thought it was a great opportunity to showcase the versatility of WoodUbend. I created a butterfly wing stencil, traced around it as a guide for my T50a trim. Heating the trim up again meant I could easily bend the moulding around the design I’d trace and glue it in place.
When heating the trims I like to keep them curled up as it retains the heat much better, meaning you’re not reaching for your heat gun every two minutes.
I broke up the trim with the decorative 1012 Bow and finished it off with the 1009 droplet. This design would be repeated on the opposite side. Notice how the trim contours around the original design of the unit?
Swapping out bending for blending, I repeated the dark into light green design I’d started on the front on the sides. It felt like we were getting somewhere now. After the second coat had dried on the front, I wanted to add a little elegance to the design, so I thought some subtle stencilling would do the trick. Using my darker greens coupled with Dixie Belle’s Deep Woods and Gold Digger Moonshine Metallics, I got to work. It set me off on the right path but I thought it was a little brash, a little too gaudy – so once the stencilling had dried I distressed it a little with some sandpaper. This really took the edge off and gave me that subtle, elegant look I was aiming for. Using the Gold Digger I highlighted the mouldings and repeated this process on both door panel, the drawer and later on, the sides. It felt like we were getting somewhere.
With the greens dominating the outside, I wanted something a bit shocking, a little unexpected when you open the doors. I opted for a statement of a colour combination, green and red with the back panel featuring a stencil design. Opening up more of my Dixie Belle paints, the interior would be painted Barn Red with Moonshine Metallics being used to showcase the floral stencil pattern.
Beauty, it would seem, had something up her sleeve.
It needed something else, a showstopper. I had just added the aforementioned 1339 centrepiece on the bottom drawer, but she seemed a little bare, certainly not a fairytale beauty. The answer seemed to jump out at me, or more accurately – flutter out at me. Taking inspiration from the butterfly wing trim on the sides, I added large lavender a Hokus Pokus transfer underneath, what else? A huge monarch butterfly, I did say I wanted a regal theme!
On the front? the french inspired Fleur de Lis X1011 applique, gold of course, coupled with another large Fleur de Lis Hokus Pokus – the original fairytale was set in France after all.
There, it was the beast has been tamed and the beauty had shone through. Until next week, I bid you a fond adeiu.
