Paper.... who'd a thunk!

Found a piece of furniture with great bones but in desperate need of some TLC?   Why not add a pop of pizzazz with paper.  Comic books, maps, wrapping paper, napkins, all are great for decoupage and will add a unique and personal touch to any piece of furniture in your home.  

A Refreshing Change

From hgtv.com

From Apartment Therapy

From Crazy Wonderful

From etcetorize.blogspot.com

Next time grab that package of napkins, don't pass on that adorable wrapping paper.... come on in to The Chirping Frog and find you a piece of furniture that needs some love, possibilities abound.

How I Decoupaged A Door With Book Pages

Right now my husband and I are hard at work building The Chirping Frog, our new Antiques & More shopping mall in Illinois down by St. Louis, MO with plans to open this Fall.  Things are really moving along and interior finishes aren't that far off.  Right now there's not much I can do inside but I did manage to start on a small project today.  I am wallpapering the bathroom doors with old Antique Price Guides that my grandfather gave me years ago.  Such a fun and easy project.   

Think of the possibilities!  It won't be perfect, after all, what happens to a book when it gets wet?  If you can handle the imperfections and work with them you can create a variety of wonderful projects completely unique to you.  

Here's a quick look at how to get it done.

First, prime the doors.

 I spent some time going through the books pulling out pages with photographs of "manly" items for the men's bathroom and "girly" items for the ladies.  Once I'd gotten my pages sorted out it's time to start applying them to the doors.

You could rip them into pieces, haphazardly apply them at all angles or keep them a little more organized and just line them up like I did.  Mod Podge would probably work but I always use wallpaper glue.  Work in small sections rolling on your glue and adding papers.  I do not use any special tools just my hands to apply the pages.  They will wrinkle a little, its inevitable.  The more you mess with the paper the worse it'll be so just quickly apply it and move on.  You might need to overlap the pages a little in places.

 

I can't help but grin when I see the doors.  I've got the front and back of both bathroom doors covered and am hoping to spray them with a tea stain tomorrow, give them a quick sanding and a couple coats of polyurethane.    What a quick, easy way to add some character and what better paper to use at an Antique Mall than an old Price Guide.

Hoping to use the same method to paper the storage room door and the entry vestibule.  Can't get maps off my mind for the vestibule and I think I've found the perfect wrapping paper for the storage room.  Wait till you see it, couldn't be more fitting.

How To Make Cute Wall Art From Leftover Wallpaper

I fell in love with this wallpaper I was hanging for somebody else so I asked if I could keep some scrap. I had a plan. Well, it's been a couple years and I found this is the closet, I think it's about time I did something with it.

Scrap wallpaper and some ribbon is all you need. 

For a quick reminder of what to look for, where you might find cool paper products and how you could use them to uniquely decorate your home, click here: Decorating Your Home With Paper for a free subscription to my Cheat Sheet Postcard series.

How To Use Paper In Unique and Creative Furniture Projects

Have you ever walked through a Home Decorating shop and found a single roll of wallpaper (wrapping paper works too) and passed because you just didn't know how you'd use it?  I know I have.  More often than not, these days, I grab it and figure out how I'll use it later.  

As you can imagine my paper stash is growing fast.  I really can't help myself, I just love paper and there's so many creative ways to use it.  

How To Make A Unique, Inexpensive Paper Ball Garland

I am loving all the paper crafts I'm seeing on the internet these days. Beautiful stuff. One project in particular caught my eye.... paper ball ornaments.
They were beautiful. Put together using wire with little caps on the top and bottom using beads/buttons/ etc. Wow! Gorgeous! My only problem is money, unless you have a stash of supplies, it's gonna cost you a pretty penny to make them.

I thought, there's got to be a way of making them without any purchases needing to be made. Here's what I came up with. I've made a garland so far and would love to use them for ornaments on my tree this year. Who knows what else I'll come up with, any ideas?

For a quick reminder of what to look for, where you might find cool paper products and how you could use them, click here: Decorating Your Home With Paper for a free subscription to my Cheat Sheet Postcard series. 

How to Decorate Your Home with Paper on the Cheap

I recently saw an episode of "Flea Market Flip" where a dresser was transformed using old love letters.  It turned out beautifully and got me to thinking, outside the box, how about a kitchen accent wall or backsplash wallpapered with recipes?

 I purchased a couple boxes of recipes at an estate sale and am waiting for the perfect project to use them on.