Frozen-Inspired Vanity Redo/Decoupage Tutorial

**This post contains sponsored content. Please see full disclosure at end**

Hi, y'all! HERE SHE IS! I've been showing you tiny sneak peeks on Instagram and Facebook, but here she is in all her glory! My daughter's vintage vanity, all "Frozen'd" up! What do you think!? She loves it! (HINT, HINT, THERE IS A GIVEAWAY AT THE END OF THIS POST!)



Want to know how I did it? Well, you've come to the right place. :) But first, you should see her her top...

She's pretty jazzy, isn't she? Grab your favorite snack, because this one's gonna be a doozy! It will likely be the most detailed and longest/wordiest tutorial I've done yet! Are you ready?

First thing was first. I had to strip the peeling, sticky latex paint I had slapped on it quickly in a rush. Not only was it latex, but it wasn't even the good kind. It was the cheapest one on the market and I didn't even bother priming beforehand. I am so ashamed to admit all of that! Alas, you live and you learn.

Here's the before, I originally bought and refinished it for my daughter's Cupcake ad Tea party:

This would have not been an easy feat had it not been for my new toy. The HomeRight Digital Temperature Heat gun! Take a look at this short video on my Instagram to see it in action; just don't mind the darkness, I was so excited to use it, I did it really late at night!

After stripping it, I gave it a thorough cleaning with my favorite green cleaner and gave it a slight rough up with a sanding sponge. I I cleaned up the dust from the sanding, and mixed up some DecoArt Chalky Finish Paint into 2 custom colors for the drawers and body of the piece. In keeping with the purple and teal Frozen theme of Wunkie's room redo, I used 2 parts Remembrance to one part Everlasting to make the soft purple for the body, and 2 parts Treasure, one part Refreshing with a splash of Everlasting to mix up the crisp teal color for the drawers. As you can see, I matched the teal to the color of Elsa's dress.
 

Here's where it gets a bit tricky. If you are going to use a sprayer, you need to thin out the paint. DecoArt's Americana Decor line has a chalky finish and is acrylic based, which when brushing on has some pretty cool finish but it wasn't what I was looking for. I wanted a smooth finish with no brush strokes, so I sprayed it. The thing about acrylic paint is that it dries by evaporation, so I didn't simply want to add water to it alone. I wanted to actually slow down the evaporation process so it would smooth out the paint and allow for a fuller adhesion. I thinned it out by adding a tiny bit of water and some acrylic extender medium. Acrylic extender is a medium that contains both an emollient and a humectant which slow down the drying process of acrylic paint, as well as creates a smoother paint. It worked beautifully and I didn't even have to sand in between coats. I used my awesome friend the HomeRight Finish Max Pro and it didn't get clogged at all. Isn't the color combination just so lovely?

The sweet snowflake stencils are from Cutting Edge Stencils. Be sure to check my YouTube page for a stencil video tutorial.

Which brings us to the fun (read: challenging, but totally doable) part. The decoupaging! I used DecoArt's Decou-page medium to add the gorgeous poster that I bought at my local big box store for a whopping $5. First, I cut around the images to fit them where I wanted them to be. The top part was very easy and you can see a video I posted to my YouTube page on how I decoupaged it HERE with my favorite little helper, Ms. Wunkie herself!

As for the Queen Elsa over the drawers, that part is a bit harder.

The most important thing, is to work quickly but to make sure that EACH LAYER of Decou-Page has COMPLETELY dried before adding another one. That said, this brand dries pretty quickly, so if needed, quickly dip your brush into a small amount of water while decoupaging.The first thing I did was to tape her (use painter's tape, so you don't damage your paint.) exactly where I wanted her lined up on the drawer fronts. I made tiny marks with a pencil where I would have to make the cuts for the drawers to open and close. Some people skip the tiny sections in between the drawers, but I wanted Elsa to be uniform with no gaps, so I took the extra step to cut and decoupage on those sections as well as the drawers. I used a ruler to make sure I got the spacing correctly and on a cutting mat, I used a precision/craft knife to make the cuts. Again, I used the ruler to make sure it was properly aligned and that the cut was straight and according to the dimensions for the spaces. I removed the drawers from the piece and applied the first coat of Decou-Page to the back of the image just like in the video above, but for the drawers, I also added a thin layer of decoupage to the vanity's surface itself, then glued each one down. I smoothed it out again like in the video I shared and allowed that portion to FULLY dry before adding the first coat of decoupage over the top of the image. I added 2 more coats, waiting in between each coat until they were fully dry.

(WE ARE ALMOST TO THE FINISH LINE, I PROMISE! Time for a funny blooper picture break!)

I take out my camera and this is what he does EVERY TIME. Oooooh, Duke!

Back to the long tutorial. ;) 

I sealed this piece with DecoArt's Americana DuraClear Varnish in Satin. Since I decoupaged, and since it will be in my daughter's room, I felt it was necessary to seal it with a saying finish. This product is specifically good over a decoupage surface, doesn't reactivate the decoupage, and doesn't yellow. I figured since Wunkie is bound to spill something on this vanity, I needed an especially hard and sturdy coat over this piece. I will be sharing more tips on decoupaging posters onto furniture over on the DecoArt Blog very soon, so stay tuned for that as well. 

I finished up the piece with some GORGEOUS glass handles from D.Lawless Hardware. The glass reminded me of ice and crystal, which was perfect for the theme.

xoxo,

**Though I received compensation for this post, the ideas, designs and opinions are 100% mine.