I love these old diner style napkin holders and have one for our vintage trailer. This one started out as a black one and I kept looking at it thinking it needs sprucing up. So I decided to do a vintage map theme on it in aqua. I think it’s perfect for a vintage trailer that uses aqua as a accent color in their decor. Anyhoo, let me share with you how I transformed this one.
Supplies:
Napkin holder
Vintage maps (or any decorative papers you like)
Paint brush
Plastic lid (for your paint/Gesso/Modge Podge
Water
Acrylic paint in Aqua
Modge Podge
Gesso
Paper towel
The first thing you want to do is make sure your napkin holder is clean by wiping it off. Next, rip your map paper into stripes and various shapes. Start with one piece of the map paper and add some modge podge to it with a paint brush. Lay it flat on the napkin holder and smooth it out so there are no bubbles. Repeat this process until the area you want covered is completely covered.
Let it dry.
Place a small amount of Gesso on your plastic lid. Wet down a wide paint brush and dip into the Gesso. Keep in mind that Gesso acts as a sealer but it also leaves a white tint over whatever you are brushing it onto. The reason we water it down a bit is so that the Gesso doesn’t end up covering up our lovely map image. Lightly brush on the Gesso over the entire area that you added the map image.
Let it dry.
Lastly, you are going to add a small amount of aqua paint to your plastic lid. Again, dip your paint brush in water before dipping it into the aqua paint. We want the aqua to be a more watery consistency as our goal here is to just add a “color wash” over the map. Lightly paint on the aqua paint.
Let it dry.
The final step is to clean up the crome area or any other area on your napkin holder. You will find that you likely got modge podge or paint in places it shouldn’t be (if you are like me and trust me I’m quite messy). I used a new kitchen sponge and add a little water and dishsoap. Be careful to only clean the metal and not the map area.
Voila! You are finished! This project is very easy and quick. The longest is the drying but you can also speed that up with a hair dryer if you wish. This is a great project to really get creative with! If you have a favorite scrapbook type paper, use that instead of vintage maps. The possibilities are endess…and fun!
P.S. If you don’t want to make your own, this one is for sale in the Shop: http://littlevintagetrailer.com/shop/
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