Decoupage is an expensive hobby! Or not?

Sometimes a lady will come into my shop saying that she really admire the items that I create and would love to take up decoupage but it’s such an expensive hobby!

Let me just say that this is not the case - decoupage can be as expensive as you want it to be!

Take traditional decoupage, in 18th century France, découpage (taken from the verb découper, ‘to cut out’) became extremely popular, black and white images were hand-colored, cut out and glued onto the surface of furniture. Several layers of varnish were applied to create the high-gloss sheen reminiscent of traditional lacquer work.

So all you need is gesso, glue, varnish, some basic acrylic paint colors and most importantly, beautiful images, once you have these then you can create endless beautiful projects.

You can either purchase items to decorate or you can up-cycle that old tray, box, frame or even unwanted items of furniture that you have hidden away somewhere because you don’t really want to throw them away!

Of course there is a huge supply of decoupage products in the market and companies are coming out with new techniques and hundreds of products all the time. Don’t feel that you have to purchase everything that comes out as this is when decoupage gets really expensive.

Take time to think about what you would like to create, do you have a certain style? Don’t forget that quite often less is more.... Even after many years of practicing decoupage both as a hobby and professionally, I still find myself using certain products.

I love using crackle paste, crackle varnish and crazy crackle. I use these products a lot to enhance or age an item that I am working on.

I can’t get enough of paint, whether chalk paint, acrylic paint, metallic paint etc. I love opening a new pot of paint, it’s so satisfying!

 Photo by David Waschbüsch

Along with the above, stencils, modeling paste, metal leaf, image transfer medium and embellishments are my key creative products, although of course I do experiment and use the many wonderful products that are in the market.

If you want to up-cycle, or make gifts that express your individuality, create beautiful and useful items for your home or you just want to escape from your everyday routine and do something for yourself then decoupage is for you!