It’s amazing how quickly furniture can become old and shabby feeling when there are kids involved, so here I am sharing the most beautiful furniture upcycle I recently completed on an old Ikea wardrobe to breath new life in to it and it give it more character than it ever had before. I have completed the same upcycle using an alternative set of decals on a set of drawers in my son’s nursery.
The tools you will need:
- A decent quality multipurpose primer, I use Zinsser BIN
- 3 x mini foam rollers
- A set of decals of your choice from Austin & Monkey
- A sharp craft knife or cutting blade
- Your chosen colour paint (I just used emulsion)
- Matte decorator’s varnish
Primer and rollers 
Decals from Austin & Monkey 
Decorators varnish
How to upcycle your furniture
- First lightly sand your furniture, just to scuff the surface slightly and remove any coatings or residue on there
- Wipe down to remove any dust
- Then prime all over being sure not to miss any spots
- Once the primer is fully dry apply your decals
- Roller on 3 x coats of your chosen emulsion, allowing to be touch dry between coats
- Once your topcoat is dry very gently lift your decals and peel (not pull) away from the furniture surface
- When all decals are removed coat with decorators varnish to seal
2 sets of decals will cover a wardrobe front 
Start with larger shapes first and then move to smaller 
2-3 coats of emulsion will cover it well 
Gently peel, don’t pull, the decals to remove
Decal Top Tips
- Decals may be gently lifted and replaced if you are not quite happy with the placement, but I would only do this once or twice as after that they start to stretch and nick a little
- The decals are super sticky so just be aware of them sticking to themselves when handling
- I start with the largest shapes first, and evenly distribute them across the furniture before moving onto the medium-sized shapes and then the smallest to fill the gaps
- One set of decals will cover the front of one small set of drawers or one half of a wardrobe
- To lift the decals, I waited till the paint was dry to avoid in inadvertent damage
- I scratched at it lightly with my nail just inside from the outside edge (to avoid pulling any paint from the furniture front) which was enough to pull the edge in allowing me to lift it easily
- It is handy to have a craft knife with you in case of any little sections that look to be peeling less neatly, you can cut around the section in question first with your craft knife
- Peel, don’t pull, the decals off, keeping the peeled edge close to the furniture and no pulling away from the surface
You can see videos and tutorials of the furniture upcycle projects I have done with Austin & Monkey decals saved on to my @pagesofemma Instagram highlights
The wardrobe was a plain white second hand Ikea one 
After a decal transformation