Don’t you just love Chinoiserie patterns? I have a whole  Pinterest Board dedicated to this style and one day would love to wallpaper a whole room with it.

   
So I wondered to myself how I could incorporate some Chinoiserie into my home, and decided to paint an old Hostess Trolley in the style. 

The first step was to give it a bit of a sand. This trolley has been in my family for a while, and has been painted many colours! In the 70s and 80s it was my mum who did the painting, first yellow, then burgundy then dark green. I inherited it in the late 90s and painted it blue, then later white.

   

Then I taped off the parts that were going to be painted with flowers, ready to spray the rest gold.

 I really loved the colour of this Dy-Mark paint. Unfortunately it is total shit when it comes to coverage, check it out:

 So it was back to the hardware shop where I picked up a cheap $5 brand. I don’t like the colour quite as much, but one coat was all that was required, so it goes to show that price doesn’t mean quality.

The next part was the fun bit. Painting the Chinoiserie pattern!

First I sketched it out with a pencil 

   

Then I started with the background and moved onto the flowers and butterflies 

A coat of polyurethane varnish in a satin finish, and the piece was complete!

  It actually didn’t turn out quite as I envisioned and initially I was disappointed with it, but it has grown on me!

If I get sick of it, it’s simple to sand and paint it again!