Decoupage with iron

Yesterday I was so desperate, but today I am thrilled. Few days ago decided to refurbish an old table using decoupage technique. It is  50 years old kitchen table,  in rather good condition, but the surface was covered with an old fashion plastic. It is the piece I will put on terase, in the garden, and buying special primer for plastic plus paint  of course, seemed too expensive. I thought that decoupaging would be cheaper and faster. So, I surfed a little bit to see available papers I could find here (didn't want to order on-line to wait for a few days for delivery). And here is the decoupage story.

Decoupage with ironing

Finally, I bought two types of paper: Easy decoupage paper (really excellent for work) and Decopatch one that gave me so much trouble. Additionally, just to mention, you will need special glue for decoupage, brushes and cotton rag.

I saw the flyer in the shop declaring it as an  thin but firm, the colors and patterns were beautiful and I bought it. What a disappointment! I needed paper suitable for larger surface, not small pieces to combine together.

This is the table before refurbishment.

Fortunately, based on previous experience, started to work on less visible part, using usual decoupage technique - glue the surface and put the paper on. And it was fiasco - so many wrinkles and bubbles, I scraped paper off the table. Decopatch paper was just like napkin - very fragile, susceptible to wrinkles.

What to do? To buy another paper or to try something else? I was so dissapointed but out of the desperation  remembered another technique - ironing.  And this turned out to be  fabulous.

Steps for decoupage ironing

Step 1: glue the surface and let it dry a little bit (for a couple of minutes) (before that I marked the line on the table to now where to put the paper).

Step 2: Put the paper on the glued surface, tap it with cotton rag or dry brush (I preffer cotton rag) and put baking paper on it. This paper is rather transparent enabling control over the napkin or Decopatch paper in this case.

Step 3: Warm the iron on the low temperature  and iron over the baking paper. Napkin will be glued without wrinkles - it was miracle for me, after the disappointment the day before.
After the first table side, improved technique - cut the smaller paper pieces (up to 20 cm long) to better control the gluing.

Step 4: Seal the paper with the transparent varnish (or special decoupage glue).

Hints: Never touch the napkin (or paper) with fingers - use dry brush or cotton rag.


Easy decoupage paper (the flowered one) was really very easy to glue. First, of course, soaked it in water and then dried with tissue paper, glue the surface and put it on. It didn't wrinkled and I could tune it easily.

The table is still not completely finished, some details are planned and I will blog how I painted it next week.