Tutorial: Houndstooth Stool Makeover

I’ve had these inexpensive Ikea stools for ages. I use them for absolutely everything. They hold my dinner most nights, serve as extra seating, a place to rest my legs while blogging and so much more. The only problem is that they were kind of trashed. Kid marks, spilled drinks, you name it stains of all kinds have sunk into the unfinished wood. So, I decided it was time to give them a little makeover. I actually used chalkboard paint since I thought that would be fun for the nieces and I’m totally in love with how they turned out. I used a houndstooth FolkArt stencils with a mix of acrylic and chalkboard paints.

I started off by painting the stool with Folk Art acrylic paint. I mixed a few colors that I had on hand to a color similar to the green in my fabric covered boxes.

After the white coat dried I taped the stencil in place and using a stencil brush I applied the chalkboard paint.

It’s probably better to let it sit there and dry but I’m so impatient I lifted the stencil off super quickly and washed off the paint. Then after the pain was dry (about 30 minutes) I moved on to the next section.

It definitely had a learning curve but after I got the hang of it it wasn't too bad. The edges aren’t perfect but I kind of like the imperfection of it. I thought about trying some spray adhesive but I wasn’t sure if there would be residue left on the bench.

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I wrote this post as part of a sponsored campaign with Plaid and The Blueprint Social. All opinions in this post are my own.

Also see all the other fun things my fellow bloggers made with stencils.