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DIY Round French Coasters – make some chic French coasters for your chic mornings or turn them into amazing gift for family and friends
Ever since I discovered that you can make your own decoration for your home, I started adding small personal touches to many new or old items all around our house. The whole thing somehow coincided with us moving to our new home (almost 5 years ago!!) so I was in desperate need of finding new budget friendly ways of decorating.
I was amazed of the many wonders a little paint can do when used to create new decorative items, but also when used to transform an old object, recycling it and giving it a new life. A whole new world opened for me and I loved it every step of the way!
I would have not dreamed in a million years that I would love the whole thing so much I would even quit my job and open a handmade shop! It was a bumpy road … and still is! I made tons of mistakes, there are things I wish I knew right from the beginning, but you know what they say…it’s the journey that matters the most!
Why I am mentioning all these to you? Because YOU can do it too!
You have no idea how fulfilling and rewarding it is to create a uniquely beautiful handmade item! When I made my first painted and distressed object I felt like I discovered a hidden treasure! I was beyond excited, but unlike other hidden treasures (that you might be tempted to keep for yourself) I wanted to show other people some of the amazing treasures I found! And this is how this blog was born! :)
I only wish I could have some more time to show you more but I’m hoping you will use my ideas as starting points in creating your beautiful handmade items!
And today is a great day to start (if you haven’t already)! :) I have a simple but beautiful project for you, one that involves some painting and distressing (of course), some amazing French images from The Graphics Fairy (of course). A quick and easy project, if I may add, one that will get you into the creative mood in no time!
DIY Round French Coasters
Materials needed
• 4 x 4 inches round MDF plaques (10 x 10 cm) – 6 pieces; you can cut them yourself or buy them from craft stores or from Amazon; whether you make them or buy them, you can use several types of unfinished materials like: scrap pieces of wood, plywood, MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) and even cardstock; I found on Amazon some places where you can buy something similar: round fiberboard coasters | plywood cutout circles | off-white paper coasters
• acrylic paint (or milk paint or chalk paint) in two contrasting colors (I used black + white) + fine grit sandpaper (for distressing); you can use any other two contrasting colors that you love or even use the color of the wood as one of your contrasting colors;
• French images – the beautiful French images are from The Graphics Fairy (love her!!!) and are included in a printable I made for these Shabby French Painted Jars; I’m sharing the printable on The Graphics Fairy, you can just prin them and use them on this project too
• waterslide decals are my favorites when it comes to personalizing and decorating an object, but you already know that; if you can’t find waterslide decal paper you can use any other image transfer technique that you like or you can use Mod Podge to decoupage the images
• a matte finish spray to seal the coasters (or other sealers that you have used before)
Instructions:
- To paint and distress the DIY Round French Coasters just follow the first two steps I showed you in this tutorial.
- To transfer the image use waterslide decal paper or follow the other steps from the same tutorial (where I used Mod Podge to decoupage the images).
- Seal the coasters.
- Enjoy! :)
I hope you will find my French coasters inspiring, because now it’s your turn! :)
Would love to hear your thoughts, feel free to leave them below. And if you have any question, again, use the comment section below.
Have fun creating something beautiful for your home!
The French coasters would be perfect for having one of these amazing drinks: Earl Grey Tea Latte (London Fog) or Coconut Oil Coffee over the weekend.
And for the French lover in you, you can pair them with this project too: DIY 5 minute decal transfer on a coffee mug.
Don’t forget to smile,
Diana
If you make some projects inspired by any of my posts, please use them for personal use only. And don’t forget, link back to my blog, or hashtag them using #bydreamsfactory or tag me using @bydreamsfactory on Instagram. Have fun! :)
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links so you can easily find the products I love.
See more of my favorites {HERE}.
Sharing with lovely people at these awesome parties.
Candy
These are great I will be trying this in the very near future. Thanks for sharing!
Have a great day!
Diana / Dreams Factory
Happy you like them, Candy!
Have a great weekend!
Cheryl
Thank you – they’re lovely!
Diana / Dreams Factory
You’re most welcome, Cheryl!
sandy mccrea
Dear Diana: I love all of your projects and look forward to receiving your emails. You are a very talented lady. I love the shabby, frenchy projects. I am in the process of updating and changing my decor and your blog is an inspiration to me. Please keep up the great ideas that you share.
Many blessings to you and your family.
Diana / Dreams Factory
Sandy, you are too sweet, thank you so much for your lovely words!
I see a changing decor as a blank canvas, one that you can play with as you wish and adapt to your needs.
Have fun filling it! :)
Lia
Love these, just beautiful!
Diana / Dreams Factory
Thank you, Lia!
I hope you will give them a try!
Vanessa
These coasters are so pretty!
Diana / Dreams Factory
Happy you like them, Vanessa!
Tricia
These look so lovely!
Question…can I use ordinary copy paper to print the French labels?
Thank you
Tricia
Diana / Dreams Factory
I’m glad you like them, Tricia!
You can definitely use regular paper for this project!
Just be careful to remove all the air bubbles when you glue it to the coasters, regular paper tends to wrinkle a little bit when you apply the adhesive.
Kerryanne @ Shabby Art Boutique
Love the coasters Diana!! Thank you for sharing at Create, Bake, grow & Gather this week.
Michelle
Your coaster are gorgeous Diana, they look like something out of a magazine. Lovely
Diana / Dreams Factory
What a great compliment, Michelle! Thank you!
That’s the power of DIY, I guess, you can make magazine worthy handmade items yourself! :)
Kerryanne @ Shabby Art Boutique
Hi Diana, just popping back to let you know that I’m featuring this gorgeous project at tonight’s Create, Bake, Grow & Gather party.
Hugs K xx
Diana / Dreams Factory
Thank you for the feature, Kerryanne! ♥
Love the new format of your link party, it pretty much summarizes THE essential of homemaking!
Rupa
Hi Diana, your projects are wonderful! I have been waiting to try the image transfer using water slide decals. I purchased Blinggasm brand from Amazon. You seem to have changed to a diff brand of decal paper recently. Can you comment on the differences between the two brands please? Thanks!
Diana / Dreams Factory
Hey Rupa, thank you so much, I’m really happy you like them!
I’ve been using for ages a waterslide decal paper from a German company that sells this type of paper in my country (Romania), but it seems like this brand is quite difficult to find in the US (or at least on Amazon).
The best thing you can do is just follow the instructions found on the package you bought.
If your decals are suitable for laser printers, my instructions and theirs should not be too different.
If you went for the inkjet printer decals, you might have to seal the image after printing and before actually applying it to the object you want to decorate.
Please let me know how it goes :)
If I can help you with something else, don’t hesitate to ask!
Sendhamarai Engineering
Great and awesome information. It will be very useful for who are searching for it. Thanks for sharing nice information. Cheers!
Tips N Tricks
Wow….this is a great idea. They are just lovely. Looking forward to making this. Thanks a lot for sharing such a creative idea.
Grant Williams
Very nice idea, Diana. But what did you use to seal them? I’m assuming some sort of spray lacquer or etc?
My one comment would be that plywood (depending on the particular kind you have) is often harder to deal with and doesn’t always cut well. MDF is useful for lots of things and comes in 1/8″, 1/4″, 1/2″, and so forth thickness. You can sometimes find 2 x 2′ boards in some hardware supply stores. I’ve used it for several different projects!
Also hardboard is good, but I don’t see that as often.
Actually, reading your post it made me realize a person could take your idea and expand on it by making their own decorative – or practical – signs for home or the office, etc.
I think you can print transferable designs onto special print sheets, but I’m not sure.
Thanks!
laurel
Oh god these look fab. looks like I already have my weekend plans in place