Miycreations Project article and photographs
by Madeleine M Langlois, MaddyLane Designs
Mosaic and Wood Stain Kitchen Cart
Transform a plain an inexpensive unpainted IKEA kitchen cart into a colourful and practical kitchen must have asset!
Materials & tools:
• Unpainted wooden Kitchen cart (Ikea, BEKVÄM)
• Sand-paper and tack cloth
• Minwax Water-Based Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner
• Minwax Water-Based Wood Stain (I used Spice)
• Stir sticks
• Sponge brushes (5 cm)
• Lint-free cloths to wipe the stain
• Minwax Polycrylic clear gloss protective finish
• Small white tiles
• Newspapers or a plastic sheet
• Tile adhesive, or No More Nails by Lepage (available at hardware stores)
• Vitrail, stain glass air dry solvent based paints by Pébéo in assorted colours
(I used Orange, Crimson, Yellow and Sand)
• Pipettes, one for each colour
• Mapei, white (fast-curing polymer tile grout) available in assorted colours at
hardware stores
• Spatula
• Old bowl or disposable container
• Damp cloth, clean rags or paper towels
• Protective eye wear and gloves (optional)
• Cutting board conditioning oil (available at Aries)
(Materials for this project are available at arts, craft stores and above mention stores.)
Need a little more counter space? Simple solution, make your own stylish kitchen cart, it will add extra style and colour to your kitchen cooking area? Kitchen carts are very practical and handy to have for cooking both indoors or for outdoors. Its my favorite piece in the kitchen, I use it all the time.
Decorative tiles with interesting colours and patterns can be quite costly and are usually sold in large quantities because they have to be ordered. Since I only needed a small amount of small tiles, I used leftover small plain white tiles from a previous project. I added a zest of colour and interest to the plain tiles using Vitrail paints. The Vitrail paints once dry become permanent, they don’t need to be baked, and they will not crack or peel off and can be easily cleaned. This makes them ideal for this type of project. I applied Vitrail colours to coordinate with the water-based stain colour applied to the kitchen cart.
Start by sanding all the wooden kitchen cart pieces and wipe with a tack cloth. Place the top cutting board panel of the kitchen cart aside for now.
To achieve stain colour uniformity, apply a pre-stain wood conditioner over all the wooden kitchen cart pieces with foam brush. The wood conditioner will dry within three to five minutes.
Choose a water-based stain colour that will go well with your decor. Be sure to mix the stain colour well before using. Wear latex gloves if you prefer, but hands and paint brushes wash up easily after application. Use a foam brush (or cloth) to apply one even coat of stain colour to the wooden kitchen cart pieces. Allow the stain to permeate the surface for about three minutes or more if want to achieve a darker result, and then wipe it off with a clean cloth moving in the direction of the grain of the wood.
Let the stain dry at least three hours before applying two to three coats of water-based Minwax Polycrylic clear gloss protective finish over all the stained pieces. Set the four side panels to be used for the mosaic work aside, this step is not applicable to them. Let each coat dry for a couple of hours, between each application. Prior to reapplying each varnish coat lightly sand the wooden pieces with fine sandpaper, and wipe with a tack cloth. Apply tile adhesive, at the back of each tile and place them into position, on each of the side panels of the kitchen cart. Leave a minimum of one-16th of an inch (1.5mm) spaces between pieces for the grout. Once all the tile pieces are applied, let them dry and set for a 6 to 12 hour period.
To apply colour to the tiles once they are set. Place newspapers onto a work surface. Fill the pipettes with the three to four Vitrail paint colours of your choice. Work on one side panel at a time, simply lightly squeeze the Vitail paint colours from the pipettes randomly applying them onto the tiled side panels. The colours will blend and spread creating a marbled effect. Once completed let the paints fully dry for 24 hours before applying the finishing grout.
With a spoon or spatula, mix the grout according to manufactures directions in a disposable container or an old bowl. Let the mixture stand for about 15 to 20 minutes. Using a palette knife spread the grout mixture to fill in all of the gaps over all of the mosaic pieces on each of the side panels.
Once all of the gaps are filled, take a damp cloth to wipe the tiles panels to remove the excess grout. Keep rinsing the cloth throughout this step. Let the tiled panels stand for 30 to 40 minutes, and wipe again. Let the tiled panels dry and cure for 48 hours until it has completely hardened. Use a damp cloth for the final polishing.
Assemble the kitchen cart as per the instruction sheet. I left the top of the kitchen cart plain in order to use it as a cutting board. I simply applied a few coats of cutting board oil with a clean cloth. Repeat this application after each cleaning. Place where extra counter space is needed and get back into cooking in the kitchen, but with more space and style.
Variations: For a more colourful kitchen cart base try your hand at using stain blending techniques using several stain colours.
Since the Vitrail air-dry permanent paints can be applied to various surfaces such as metal, wood, glass, galvanized items and tiles, why not use the same technique as above to decorate various other items around your home
View more MIy projects at www.maddylane.com
Copyright maddylane designs 2020
photos, text by maddylane designs
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