5 Furniture Makeovers with Tape Design
Let’s review my 5 favourite furniture makeovers with Tape Design. Personally my favourite tool in my painting kit is tape. I use it for so much more then simply ensuring clean lines and protecting areas I do not want to be painted. My love for tape design is inspired by the very many talented furniture refinishers in the UK creating memorable and one-of-a-kind drink cabinets with extensive line work. Only accomplishable with the use of tape to create patterns.
3d Cube Effect – Elaborate Tape Work
First up is this 3d cube pattern. The idea of creating a 3d pattern on a piece of vintage furniture, came to me after seeing Escher inspired wallpaper.
I initially considered simply using the wallpaper for decoupaging the piece, but opted against it. This was a pattern I felt that I could reproduce with paint and tape. I also feel that by hand painting the piece contains more warmth and charm then with decoupage alone. The hand painted imperfections add a human element to a work.
A new pair of modern style legs and a simple taped line design across the front in the same colours, complimented the 3d design perfectly.
For more info on the process, check out the full furniture makeover.
3D Quilt Pattern – 3 Rounds of Tape
This was definitely my most challenge furniture makeover with tape design which even caused my husband to declare I may just be a little crazy. I was inspired by a quilting pattern I found on Pinterest and I wanted to see if I could accomplish the pattern on a piece of vintage furniture. So natural I picked the longest buffet I had, at a whopping 180 cm.
This project required me breaking the pattern down into 3 separate taping and painting sessions in order to overlay the additional colours and complete the 3d effect.
The final result? Stunning. No one initially assumes that this piece is hand painted due to the complexity of the design. Only upon closure inspecting and finding small imperfections, do they ever quess it’s hand done.
Check out the full furniture makeover for more details of the transformation.
Pride Reigns Here – Crisp Tape Lines
Created in the summer of 2022, right before the celebration of pride in the Netherlands.
With this piece I wanted to accomplish two goals. Firstly, I wanted it to be bright and colourful celebration of pride and secondly, I wanted to control the drip of paint.
As furniture refinishers, we are constantly doing everything to avoid paint dripping. I thought to myself, what if I used dripping paint to my advantage? So I started experimenting with the best ways to get paint to drip, in an attractive manner, to run straight and not to blend into the colours nearby.
The rest of the work on this piece was clean, crisp lines, accomplished via tape, with the lines expanding from a half-moon starting point.
Still one of my favourite pieces to date.
Sunburst Dining – Tape for Curves
When I started working on this gate-leg table I had the concept of a rather complex art deco pattern across the entire top. However, the more I thought about it, I found that it may be far to busy of a pattern. I did know that I wanted a pattern that would look good with the table leaves down or up. From this was born the idea of a sun burst with the sun stretching over two parts of the table and the rays over all three parts.
I broke out flexible tape for this project, and while it can make a gradual curve, I would never recommend it for sharper curves as it tends to pucker and allow paint bleed through.
Retro End Tables – First Tape Work
This retro line work was one of my first attempts to create a furniture makeover with tape design. It’s still probably my absolute favourite pieces I have done and the item I still wish I had space in my house for. These pieces also sold incredibly fast to a B&B that fell in love with them. So I know that they went to a good home.
The concept behind the design was simple. I wanted a curve and I wanted to highlight how well blues went with a rich brown. Easy Peasy!
This was also my first attempt to create my own shades and while it was simply picking a blue and a white and mixing different ratios, I quickly learned how difficult mixing your own shades of paint can be.
Furniture Makeovers with Tape Design
I would love to hear from you in the comments. What was your favourite furniture makeover with tape design? Have you tried tape design in your own furniture refinishing? Reach out and share your design, I would love to see it.
