Upcycling for Good

Decorate a kids ironing board

Take a lovingly handcrafted toy ironing board, and restore it with colour and a fun vintage themed decoupage treatment.

Resene upcycling for good with Sarah Herring - Project 37

Finished project
Finished project

You will need: Clear-drying PVA glue, old magazines for taking clippings from, Resene Aquaclear waterborne urethane varnish, Resene Quick Dry primer undercoat, Resene testpots – Sarah used Resene Rascal and Resene Sea Nymph, sandpaper and testpot brushes.

Prior to refinishing
Before
Finished project
Finished project
 
Step 1 Step one
Check that your item doesn’t need any repairs. Give it a light clean and sand to prepare it for painting. This old ironing board was in pretty good condition but needed a sand to tidy up a few dings and dents. Once ready for painting, apply one coat of Resene Quick Dry primer undercoat and wait for it to dry.
Step 2 Step two
Apply your first chosen colour to the main board. Sarah chose Resene Sea Nymph for a bit of a vintage look for the finished project. Apply two coats, allowing dry time between coats.
Step 3 Step three
Apply your chosen base colour to the stand. Sarah chose Resene Rascal. Apply two coats, allowing dry time between coats.
Step 4 Step four
Browse through some magazines or old children’s books to find some cute clippings that you can collage on the top of the ironing board. Because a hand crafted ironing board is quite an old fashioned toy, Sarah wanted to use quirky and cute clippings that felt fun and nostalgic. Cut out things like vintage china, button and sewing images, polka dot patterns, stripy socks etc.
Step 5 Step five
Once you have all your clippings, place them on the board to plan where you want them to go and how you want to layer and overlap the clippings. Sarah placed a bunch of clippings at one end of the board, so the paint colour would still be visible across the rest of it.
Step 6 Step six
Start gluing down your clippings by using a mix of 50/50 PVA glue and water as a paste. To decoupage, you apply one layer at a time, gluing the pictures down and then applying a coat of the paste mixture over the top to seal your layers. Add more layers of glued cuttings on top of each completed one, applying the paste mix on top of each layer. Once the design is finished, wait for all the glue to dry.
Step 7 Step seven
Once your decoupage has dried completely, apply two coats of Resene Aquaclear varnish over the top to protect your work and give your project a lovely gloss finish. And there you have it, a vintage toy restored with a fun new look, ready for a new child to enjoy.
finihsed project Completed project