How To Hide All Your Furniture Imperfections With A Raised Stencil | YouTube Video Coming This Weekend!
This thrift store tallboy was the perfect blank canvas to get creative with… except it wasn’t exactly perfect. It had plenty of little imperfections, repairs, and flat surfaces that needed some help.
Even while I was cleaning, sanding, and priming, I had NO idea where this makeover was going. But I’ve learned that’s okay. Sometimes you just have to START. Action always seems to spark more ideas than sitting there and staring at a piece. And eventually, the idea came — raised stencils!
I’ve been using this technique on furniture since 2015, and it’s such an easy way to add texture and character to plain furniture. But on this dresser, the raised stencil had another job too… disguising all those little flaws and imperfections.
Here’s how this imperfect thrift store tallboy came together!
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Bonus, it’s Furniture Fixer Upper Day! If you’re new here, on the fourth Thursday of every month, I join four super-talented friends (Christy – Confessions of a Serial DIYer, Kathy – Petticoat Junktion, Natalie – A Ray of Sunlight, and Gail – My Repurposed Life) to share our before-and-after furniture restyles. I’ve included the links at the bottom of today’s post, and I hope you join me in seeing what they’ve created this month! I always learn something new from these talented ladies.
Here’s the Tallboy Dresser I found at my local Mission Thrift Store. It was structurally sound with great bones but had a bunch of small dings, holes, and scratches all over it.
When I brought it home and gave it a good once-over, I also noticed the top drawer was sliding out when opened. I have a super cheap and easy fix that I’ll share later in the post.
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YOUTUBE TUTORIAL
I’ll have the full step-by-step YouTube tutorial for you this weekend. Our #siyoutubefamily is already a community of 59.4K, so don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t done so already. You’re the BEST, and I appreciate your support! 🙂
SUPPLIES
Mission Tallboy Dresser – SALVAGED
White Lightning Cleaner
Auto Sponge
DeWalt Impact Gun Drill Set
Palm Sander For Scuff Sanding
Sanding Sponge
Bonding BOSS Primer
Royal Damask Stencil Design
Brown Mud For Raised Stencil
4″ Roller for Primer
2″ Angled Paint Brush
Anchor Black Silk Mineral Paint
Gator Hide Topcoat
PREPPING THE DRESSER FOR ITS MAKEOVER
To start prepping, I removed the hardware using my DeWalt Impactor and then gave this dresser a super good cleaning with my heavy-duty furniture cleaner and a large automotive sponge. Then I let the dresser dry overnight.
SCUFF SANDING WITH EXTRA ATTENTION TO THE DRAWERS
To scuff this dresser before priming, I used my orbital sander AND my palm sander. This is an old dresser, and the drawers, inside and out, looked dark and bleak. So I really got in there and sanded the inside of the drawers, the outside of the drawers, the rails, and the face of the drawer. Cleaned them up really nice so whoever buys this piece won’t be looking at 60+ years of old finish.
PRIMING & PAINTING
Once I had all the drawers cleaned and the body and top scuff sanded as well, I removed all the dust and brought it back into my paint room for some stain-blocking primer. At this point I still had NO idea what I was going to do with the piece, but I figured I’d get the primer on there and at least solve the bleed-through issue (and see what needed filling/fixing) before I decided on colors, design, etc. It’s also a great way to SEE all the dings and scratches that need filling. For this dresser, there were so many of them it would have been quite the patch job!
ROYAL DAMASK RAISED STENCIL
HOW TO HIDE IMPERFECTIONS AND MATCH UP A RAISED STENCIL DESIGN
Raised stencilling is easy to do and it doesn’t have to be perfect because once its painted and or sanded back, the imperfections are what create interest and texture!
- Start by picking your stencil design to compliment the furniture your working with.
- Center the stencil on your furniture or pick the placement you like and then use some tape to keep the stencil in place.
- Using some Mud or texture on a putty knife, smooth the medium over the stencil design.
- Scrape the excess medium off the surface of the stencil and then lift the stencil carefully to reveal the embossed design.
- Let your raised stencil design dry and then go ahead and paint it, gild it, distress it, or whatever finishing technique you like!
With such a large area to cover in a raised stencil design, I needed to stencil and then reposition the stencil to continue the design.
Matching a stencil pattern is so much easier when it’s dry or semi-dry!
It was much easier to lay the stencil overtop and maneuver it without worrying about messing up what you’ve already stenciled. Once I found the perfect match, I added the Mud to the rest of the drawer top.
Tips – I used an inexpensive plastic drywall putty knife to spread out the mud and scrape off the excess. I found this really helped the drying process go much faster. And then using my heat gun to dry it a little more before matching up the design was very helpful as well.
PAINTING IN TRADITIONAL BLACK
It’s time to paint! To give this dresser a traditional look, I chose to paint it in a classic black. The damask design is very traditional, so I thought it would be the perfect match. This dresser took two coats for full coverage. I used my brush-and-roll paint technique for a SUPER SMOOTH finish. You can see the full step-by-step + video brush-and-roll technique here.
To apply this paint, I used my synthetic DB short brush, and then used this 4inch roller to smooth everything out. If you’re not set up with a paint gun, I believe this is the BEST way to get as close to a brush-free spray finish without using a sprayer.
Below is a close-up of how smooth the roller evens out the paint. This is still wet, and once this wet paint self-levels, it looks flawless!
DRAWER FIX WITH INEXPENSIVE PLASTIC STOPPERS
To fix the loose drawer that kept on wanting to slide all the way out when I opened it, I used these super inexpensive plastic drawer stops. They come in a pack of 20, and all you do is screw them to the inside of the frame. They create a little drag on loose drawers and then stop them at the back panel so they don’t fall out. I’ll share more in this weekend’s YouTube video tutorial.
FINISHING TOUCHES WITH TOPCOAT
Because I used Anchor Black All-In-One Silk Paint, a topcoat is NOT required. But to make it look more elegant and increase the sheen a little, I sprayed 2 coats of Gator Hide.
Pro Tip ~ You can apply a gloss OVER the raised stencil to increase the sheen and bring more attention to the embossed design as I did on these nightstands here. It’s really easy to do. I keep my paintbrush at a low angle to the stencil and just kiss the raised stencil while brushing across the raised design. The key is not overloading the paintbrush. You want it fairly dry because you don’t want the topcoat dripping onto the flat surface.
SPRAY PAINTING MISMATCHED HARDWARE
For the final detail, I found some beautiful vintage hardware pulls in my inventory. I ALWAYS save old hardware! You never know when it will be the perfect match for an upcoming project. I didn’t have a full set of 8 of any one type so to match these pulls, I gave them a quick spray with black spray paint. I installed the ‘odd’ two onto the top drawer and the remaining 6 on the bottom three drawers. And they look great!
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THE BIG REVEAL…
Here’s the finished look! What do you think!?
And here’s a closer look at the side view and the painted pulls. I’m really glad I top-coated to add the little extra sheen.
I think this dresser is perfectly imperfect and looks very elegant!
And just for fun, I prompted an AI to generate this restyled dresser in a room with a view. Here’s what it generated. I REALLY wish decorating my own home was this easy!
And now for some FURNITURE FIXER UPPER FUN!
You’re going to LOVE what these creative FFU ladies do! Below are the BEFORE photos. Visit the links to see the amazing AFTERS and learn how they did it! I’m heading over to take a peek, too!
1. SI (HAPPY YOU’RE HERE!)
2. CONFESSIONS OF A SERIAL DIYER
3. PETTICOAT JUNKTION
4. A RAY OF SUNLIGHT
5. MY REPURPOSED LIFE
Here’s another look at this thrifted tallboy dresser before and after.
I love how this Damask Raised Stencil added just the right amount of detail and sophistication to this flat-faced tallboy dresser. It covered up all those little imperfections beautifully. The only thing I would have done differently (in a perfect world where I’d known what color I was going to paint this piece right from the start) is use black mud instead of brown. And while I wish I had eight matching pulls, I actually love how these all work together. Once everything was painted black, it looked intentional and perfectly designed — a true one-of-a-kind “salvaged” piece!
I hope this makeover inspires you to look at some plain furniture you already have with fresh eyes and try this raised stencil technique!
Thank you so much for being here and for following along with our August Furniture Fixer Uppers Tour. If you have a question or want to say hello, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below — you always brighten my day!
Happy creating, sweet friends! 💙
Denise x
RELATED POSTS:
CURBSHOPPED TALLBOY MAKEOVER
RAISED STENCIL ON GOODWILL CABINET
ONE COLOR RAISED STENCIL NIGHTSTANDS
1980S LINGERIE CHEST MAKEOVER
HOW TO APPLY STENCIL TEXTURE ON FURNITURE
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