Wallpaper-Fabric Painted Craft Storage ~ How to turn a bookcase into a Craft Storage with matching sides and front (painting fabric using wallpaper)

We needed to move my craft supplies from the storage/crafts room we used before, as we need the space for something else. What to do .. ?

I like to use “unusual” spots for something. See photo on the left? We broke out the top of the wall (on the left-side) in our passage, a couple of years ago.

Then built in a counter, which opened up the kitchen, added some bar stools and now use it as a Breakfast bar.

On to today’s project :

When we bought our scullery cabinets a while ago, we received a standard chipboard bookcase for free.

Hubby painted it white, as I wanted to use it in the storage room, so just plain white was okay, then…

Now, I had to move my craft supplies to a more “public” space – the passage ! That corner always did seem a bit lonely, anyhow, so the Craft Storage moved there.

This is only part of my supplies – must still figure out a way/place for the rest) .. Point is, I couldn’t leave it like that – open, plain white, not even painted 100% !

Right top is what it looks like now from the corner/side – wallpaper on the side and painted fabric, to match the wallpaper design, in front – that’s the right bottom pic.

Here is what I did :

Photo left – I used white linen to make a curtain, with eyelets.
Photo right – those are standard wooden cabinet knobs, but I’ve glued (using wood glue) it to the corners, as hubby drilled some holes into the “middle” piece of the knob for the dowel stick to fit in.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of doing the actual wallpaper, but it’s really very simple.

First photo on the left shows what I’ve used (Spray Adhesive and a Spray Sealant). I measured the sides of the book case, leaving a one inch border all round, cut the wall paper using zig-zag scissors.

Wallpaper-Fabric Painted Craft Storage

How to apply wallpaper to a bookcase :

I turned the bookcase on it’s side, after which I sprayed the wood, as well as the back of the wallpaper with the Adhesive. Waited about two minutes and slowly started from one side to press/rub it down with my hand.

I used a rubber craft roller and rolled out any bubbles which might have formed (always do this from the center outwards). Ended spraying it with the sealant and gave it another coat after 5 minutes.

After that, I left it overnight to completely bond before flipping the case over to do the other side the next morning. WALLPAPER DONE!

The stencil !

The second, third and fourth photo’s show how I made the stencils and painted the fabric. I cut out the two different sized flowers from a piece of wallpaper using my craft knife (2nd picture).

Third photo – I applied some tac-tac glue (not permanent and won’t leave any stickiness behind) to the back of the cut-out stencil. This type of glue only needed to be applied once as it stays on the stencil.

Waited about 5 minutes for the glue to “settle” and then (4th picture). Placed it in position, and started to paint over the stencil using fabric paint and a small craft foam roller.

A foam roller works very nicely as you can start with light strokes, press harder (should you want a darker color) or apply another coat. I decided to do 3 of the larger flowers in a row, 2 of the smaller flowers in the second row and repeated down to the bottom of the curtain.

The Painting !

I painted the lines/leaves freehand style and wasn’t really concerned for it to be perfect. On the two photos at the right, I filled in some of the minor .. but necessary, details to the flowers (of course trying to copy as best I could from the wallpaper – because, me ?… no Picasso! ).

Once all the painting was done it needed only to be ironed (I iron both sides) to make the paint permanent. Always use an old thin piece of fabric under and over when ironing.

The curtain is now ready to be threaded through the eyelets with the dowel stick ! When dirty, wash and iron normally.

I quite enjoyed this as it was my first dealings with wallpaper and I haven’t done any fabric painting in over a year ! (Must say .. the wallpaper made a very strong stencil and I’m keeping it for future projects).

Hope you found something interesting here, (I had other ideas for the front of my new Craft Storage-case.. but, yeah, they don’t always work out and then one must – shake the head, loosen those braincells and something will pop-up).

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