You Can Folk It! | Daisy Drawers

Hey, welcome back for another batch of Sunday Inspiration over here at Folk It! HQ. This week we're looking at storage and a simple folky way in which you can completely transform it. Storage units are dirt cheap and available all over the high street, we grabbed this set of three drawers from Matalan and decided to give it a daisy makeover. 

Note: The headers were already printed on the drawers. 

YOU WILL NEED

Storage of your choice

Folk It! Starter Kit - Level 1

Americana Decor Chalky Finish Paint in Escape

Folk It! Level 2 - Daisy Details kit

Water

1. So let's get started, we're going to paint the whole unit (minus the drawers) with a wash, so remove all of the drawers prior to painting. To create the blue wash - mix 2 parts of Americana Decor Chalky Finish Paint in 'Escape' with 1 part Water and brush the mixture all over the unfinished wood, remove any excess with a soft dry cloth. 

Folky Tip: The wood needs to be unvarnished/unpainted to allow the wash to soak into the surface. The water will raise the grain of the wood slightly making it feel rough, so always lightly sand it using a fine sandpaper, this often removes a little of the wash we have just applied which can give it a nice finish. If you'd rather have a stronger colour then just apply a second layer of the wash but this time don't sand afterwards. 

2. Now open up your Folk It! Starter Kit, we're going to use the Folk It! Dotting tool along the top edges of the individual drawers to create simple dot daisies. The piece of storage that you are painting will alter the way in which you wish to decorate it, we popped our dot daisies either side of the type already present on our drawers. 

3. Next up are the comma stroke daisies, we're going to use the round brush and liner brush from the starter kit and by following the steps from our Daisy Details kit (we've included an instruction page form our kit to help you above) you can learn to paint your very own. The kit teaches you how to use your brush to create a highlight and a shadow in one single stroke, perfect for creates those leaves and petals. 

Folky Tip: When painting a comma stroke you are learning a 'technique' so it's important not to try and 'draw' the shape. The technique is to press the bristles down and lift the bristles. It is this action that you make and the bristles of the brush that are creating the shape. This is the first step in learning more advanced brush strokes and techniques.

4. Once you've mastered our comma stroke daisies, there are tonnes of daisies you can paint. Play around by drawing different sized circles and ovals and place the centre in different places - to the top - side - middle - bottom and see what happens when you paint the petals. This is where you can let your creativity take over and really customise your piece of storage. 

Folky Tip: Why not paint inside the drawers? Or on the sides of the drawers so the design peeks out every time you open a drawer? That's the beauty of decorating a project yourself, you can place the design wherever you desire. 

So that completes our Daisy Drawers tutorial, it's super easy and diverse, why not be a little adventurous and apply it to a wardrobe or a bedside table? Here at Folk It! we love to see your creations so if you give this tutorial a go be sure to share it and tag us using the hashtag #youcanfolkit

Have a folky week,

Carol x