When I saw this little heart shelf that someone was trying to get rid of, I knew I had to have it. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it at the time, but I put it under my table and worked on other projects.
One day, when I was cleaning things out, I found this again and had recently seen something on Pinterest that I thought would be great for this project see my inspiration pin on the right). I wanted to do a tie-dye affect on the heart shelves.
Prep
First I sanded it to make it smooth and to remove some of the finish. This was a pretty quick process since it was such as small shelf.
Paint
I gave it about three coats of white chalk paint to cover all of the dark stain and to give a good base to add the stain.
Stain
I used three colors Unicorn Spit: Pink, Teal and Purple. If you don’t know what Unicorn Spit is, you have been missing out. It is a water-based non-toxic gel stain that can be used in many ways. I love to use it over a light chalk paint since it really shows off the color.
I just put the stain in concentric circles and spritz with water (to allow it to blend better). I then took my hand and starting from the center, pulled toward the outer edges (I wiped off the stain on my hand between each swipe to keep the colors clean). This method almost gave me the effect I wanted. I was look for a little more tie-dye so I added more stain and used my fingers to just move it around in a star burst pattern.
You can see on the bottom shelf how I just kept using my fingers to spread the stain to give it the effect I wanted.
Sealing
I am sealing with with oil-based Polyurethane to sharpen the colors and protecting it, but I am really happy with the final effect.
