SPANKY LUVS VINTAGE: A new old Piano Stool thanks to a little paint decopauge and The Graphics Fairy :)

My Nephew Larry has been buying a lot of old stuff at "storage auctions" and estate sales and he cracks me up because he is always stopping when he sees people on the corners with stuff set out for sale. It's in our DNA I guess. There's just no getting around it....you either love doing this kind of thing or you simply think it's a waste of time messing with old junk....LOL! So the other day at work I took home a couple of pieces that he had bought....and today....my day off I had time to re-do the first one.
This old piano stool with ball claw feet was pretty cracked and jacked.

So I first got out the sander and went to town on the top of the stool. I also filled in the big crack with some "caulk" and then went back and sanded that down. Then came some white paint that I mixed with some beige paint. And then some blue paint mixed with more of the white paint that I had a big bucket of in the garage. (Use what you have is my motto whenever you can ..you don't have to run out and buy something new to make something new.) It's pretty simple...as you are painting--- simply rub out some areas...rub harder in some areas than others..to get that distressed look with the original wood showing through.
I also have this old "sea sponge " that I am constantly using on just about everything. To me...the best part about sponging is that you can actually very easily cover up "mistakes" :=)
So for the top of the stool....I went to my favorite on-line go-to when I am too lazy to search my own images.....
The amazing Graphics Fairy...
http://www.graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/
She has an amazing blog (one of my all time favorite blogs LOL ) with free images and a lot of inspiring tips and info.
She has a great tutorial there about copying onto tissue paper and adding it to a project....(which is what I did for the center image)...I used some white polka-dot tissue paper and I really like the way the dots show thru the finished image.
For the other images...I simply used some more of the Graphic Fairy's great graphics....printed them out....put some decoupage on the top of the stool.....burnished the image...and peeled away the paper. Some of the paper whenever I use this method always "sticks"....I'm not sure if I am just too slow-mo these days or what....but it is pretty easy to wet your fingers and "touch up" what you don't want to leave on your project. Just don't rub too hard.....until you get the hang of it....you yourself will know when it "feels just right" :=)
So then I stamped on some gold tone ink and I added one more coat of decoupage to the top of the stool before I sprayed it a few times with clear gloss. I myself tend to always spray things a bit heavy so I make it a point to stand further away from the item I am clear coating :=)
Last...I added some polyurethane to the top of the stool. (I also want to add from my own experience that when I am using things like polyurethane....to me....it is much easier to apply it with a piece of an old tee...or rag....I used to always fight the finish if I was using a brush....and a nice soft old rag makes it so much easier to apply the final coat.)
And here is what it looks like now....