So I’ll be honest. I’ve had this kid’s table sitting in my garage for probably 6 months…and I just haven’t been too excited about it. Let me just paint you a picture (I mean that figuratively) of what this thing looked like before (since I don’t actually have a before picture). It was a dirty white color with a picture of Peter Rabbit in the middle. Pretty gross looking actually.
I know you aren’t supposed to judge a book by its cover, especially when you’ve seen the awesome transformations that furniture can make, but I was definitely judging this one. But I decided I needed to get this thing out of my garage once and for all, so it was time to make this little guy beautiful again for the first time.
I also made the recent decision to start getting a little more creative with my painting. Make it a little more interesting. So I decided to start out with stripes. And I remembered a stripe tip about keeping the paint from bleeding through that I learned from a fellow painter that I’d been wanting to try out for a while…and guess what? It actually works!
So first you paint your piece with the the base color and tape it off. Make sure you tape the outer edges of what you want your second color to be, so your tape shouldn’t necessarily be equally spaced.
Then, paint along the edges one more time with the base color. I was tempted to skip this because I didn’t want to wait for yet another layer of paint to dry…but this is the secret to no bleed through.That’s because if any color bleeds through, it will be the color that belongs on the other side of the tape so you won’t even notice!
After that dries, start painting away with your stripe color with no fear of bleed through. It’s that easy! :)
I actually feel bad for not having faith in this piece. It’s such a bright and happy table now. No more dirty Peter Rabbit.
If you’d like to learn more tips and tricks for painting furniture, download my free furniture painting guide.
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Leisa says
Cute cute table, Kala! I’m an impatient painter too – glad to see I have kindred spirits out there. Gives me courage to stripe my bathroom… :)
Kala says
Thanks! Good luck with your bathroom…let me know how it goes!
jennifer prod says
such gorgeous design- you should sell these :)
Kala says
Thanks, lady! I do sell furniture locally here in KC one weekend a month. :) Eventually I’d love to own my own shop, but that’s a distant dream for now.
karli says
best. tutorial. ever! thank you! i saw you on erin’s blog as a sponsor. i am too! showing some sponsor love! new reader!
Kala says
Thank you! I’ll have to check out your blog tonight! :)
Katie @ Upcycled Treasures says
What an adorable little stool and the stripes look perfect! Isn’t it funny how something that seems so simple {like stripes} can be so intimidating? I have wanted to paint stripes but am afraid they won’t be straight, or that the paint will bleed but the tip about painting the base coat first is awesome! I will definitely be trying this out. Thanks for linking up to The Makers!
-Katie @ Upcycled Treasures
Kala says
Thank you! I can’t imagine striping anything much more complicated, like a wall. Luckily my 18 inch ruler stretched all the way across this one, so that gave me a little more confidence that they’d be straight! :)