A friend of mine was moving and offered this little chest if I'd move it. You bet! I brought it home and repaired a drawer guide, and lightly sanded and cleaned it, preparing for painting.
From BLAH to YAH! Raised Stencil Project
10 Materials
$25
3 Hours
Medium
Single dressers are my favorite project pieces. Their size lends them to many options for your home. Entryways, bathroom, or bedroom these smaller pieces with drawers offer a lot of function for very little space.
Also, they're quicker to do than a huge armoire or triple dresser. HA! 
I had this great little stencil with several different coordinating patterns I thought would be fun to use for the chest. Using an old credit card, I spread wall mud over the stencil and created a pattern. Allowed it to dry then lightly sanded the raised stencil, and removed all the dust.
I covered the whole drawer front with gold spray paint and a top coat of polyurethane.
Applied a thin coat of wall mud to body of the dresser. Rolled over it with a stencil roller with croc design and allowed it to dry before lightly sanding. Painted the body and over the gold on the drawer fronts. Using a wet chore boy sponge, I carefully wet sanded over the stencil to reveal the gold pattern.Brown glaze over the entire piece before finishing with a top coat of gloss poly.
A long way from the plain white chest, this new finish will brighten a room.
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4 of 257 comments
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Donnaon Feb 7, 2019Beautiful, what vision you possess.
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Pamela Fieldon Feb 11, 2019thanks Donna!
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Le'on Mar 11, 2019That is quite a change.....beautiful
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Pamela Field31 minutes agothank you so much!
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I'm confused, do you leave the stencil on it, is that what gives it the raised look? And if so then I assume you buy multiples of the same stencil? If I am wrong than I am misunderstanding what you did
You place the stencil, then use any type of wall spackle or mud to fill the open spaces of the stencil as opposed to paint. I lift immediately, wash off the stencil, then lay it again. Wall mud is a compound used for drywall seams, or to patch cracks in the wall. My personal favorite is the fast drying spackle, which comes in several brands. This is as easy as using paint with a stencil and will make you smile every time you see it. I used this technique for a border in our bathroom.
Fantastic save! But what is WALL MUD? I really want to try this, too !
Thank you! I really want to use this method!
For those of us in the UK - what IS 'wall mud' and what IS a 'chore boy sponge'? The result is absolutely stunning but, I fear, beyond my capabilities!
You place the stencil, then use any type of wall spackle or mud to fill the open spaces of the stencil as opposed to paint. I lift immediately, wash off the stencil, then lay it again. Wall mud is a compound used for drywall seams, or to patch cracks in the wall. My personal favorite is the fast drying spackle, which comes in several brands. This is as easy as using paint with a stencil and will make you smile every time you see it. I used this technique for a border in our bathroom.