Try our desk decor ideas using summery Resene pastel hues. Perfect for the home office or back-to-school study nook.
You will need:
- Resene Mystery, Escape, Hampton and Kandinsky
- Resene test pot brush
- Bamboo placemats
- Craft knife and scissors
- Craft boxes or similar
- Cardboard mailing tube
- Craft glue
- Wooden dowelling rod and fine-tooth saw
- Superglue
Instructions
Cover and adorn a variety of objects with Resene paint to make handy storage or display boxes or tubes. Old packaging or sturdy cereal boxes look great transformed using the following techniques.
Start by cutting the string that holds all the pieces of bamboo together so that you have lots of loose individual sticks to make your pattern with.
1. We covered the back of the boxes , so there was no divot showing. Glue the bamboo on a diagonal from corner to corner (A). Start from the centre (longest length) and work your way to the outer corner. Leave a small 5mm gap between each strip of bamboo. The negative space makes the pattern more obvious.
2. For the next part of the pattern glue your bamboo strips in the opposite direction, working from the centre and along the straight edge of the first strip you glued (B). Again leave small, even gaps between each strip of bamboo.
3. Once the glue has completely dried, use a sharp craft knife or scissors to trim the excess lengths so the edges are flush with the box (C).
4. Repeat this technique on all boxes. You may like to try having the stripes going in alternating directions too, like we did here (D).
5. Paint one triangular corner in Resene Mystery using a Resene Test Pot Brush (E) and the other in Resene Hampton (F).
6. Once dry, use a small amount of Resene Mystery to lightly brush over the top of the Resene Hampton side (G). Paint the raised ridges only, allowing the lemon colour to show in between. The key is not to overload your paint brush or it will seep into the grooves.
7. Paint the remainder of the boxes, interior and exterior, in Resene Escape. Resene colour tip: For a little extra shimmer, use Resene FX Metallic for one of your topcoat colours.
8. Make small handles by sawing 4cm lengths of a wooden dowel and supergluing them onto each box (H). Leave to set firmly before using.
9. TUBE: An easy, practical and fantastic glow-up for an old mailing tube is to wrap it in a bamboo placemat and then paint in your favourite Resene hue. Use some Resene masking tape to mark the height you want, this will give you a nice straight edge and allow the plastic tube ends to fit back on perfectly. Cut through the tube using a craft knife (I).
10. Glue and wrap the tube with the placemat. Once dry, trim the excess matting with a sharp pair of scissors (J).
11. Paint the entire tube with two coats of Resene Kandinsky (K).
Voila!
