Do It. Weekend project.

A nice way to fancy up a plain piece of unfinished, wooden furniture is to paint it, then decoupage it with some kind of image. Here I chose the desk chair in the living room. It was the only unfinished piece of wooden furniture in the apartment. I would use wood as a base because I'm not sure how decoupage reacts with other materials. I don't think it sticks as well.

Among the nice materials that can be decoupaged onto something are old photos, maps, and newspaper. I chose newspaper because this is the writing chair in the living room and nothing seemed more fitting than old issues of the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times.

I used black as a background to give it a black-and-white look, but red or some other color would work just as well. Using black though, made the newspaper dark and required my roommate and I to add more layers of newspaper.

You will want to dust the chair so that the paint and decoupage material stick. To gloss on the material, you will want to buy Mod Podge Decoupage sealer, or something comprable, at a crafting or art supply store.

I tore pieces of newspaper, but you can use large images too. It just has a different effect.

When you have painted and decoupaged, let the item dry a full day before sealing with a glossy Polyurethane mineral sealant so that your clothes don't get covered in whatever material you were using and it makes it a little more waterproof.

It's a very easy project, relatively inexpensive, and can be done in a few days over the weekend.

-- Lauren Williams