Decor Transfers

Have you heard about Decor Transfers?? We’ve been carrying this product for some time now, but we are so excited about the latest release of products.

So…what is a decor transfer? Basically, it’s a 1 step, no mess transfer. They come on a roll with a wax like backing paper. Simply unroll, place on your surface, rub & peel away the paper. That’s it! Here’s a how-to video I did showing the process.

The transfers now come in charcoal, white & a new colored version! Here’s one of our first pieces with the Memoir Decor Transfer in the original charcoal version. Both the white & charcoal versions come in many different patterns. The colored transfers are available in a few patterns. You can check them out on our website HERE, or visit us in one of the shops!

Let’s take a peek at some more examples & share some tips we’ve learned along the way.

The transfers seem to go on better over a light coat of wax. It seems they stick a little better.

This is one the new white transfers in Brigitte’s Patisserie Wide…which look amazing over a dark paint finish. We did this one over Graphite Chalk Paint® and then finished with Annie’s clear & white wax.

With most of our pieces, when we’re applying a full transfer (like on the above Graphite dresser) it’s easiest to lay the piece on its back and lay the transfer down.

If you cut up the transfer, like we did on this original piece here, it would be easy enough to just lay each piece of transfer on each drawer without flipping it on its back. Make sense?

These transfers are such a great value. You can cut them up and use them to create several pieces. And what a huge impact they make! On this dresser here, we wanted to just add a little bit of detail at the top.

Now, let’s talk a bit about the NEW colored transfers…omg they are so fun!! While the charcoal transfers & white transfers tend to work in the same way, we’ve found the new colored versions to be a little bit different. The colored version is a full sheet of transfer, where as the white & charcoal versions are pieces. You can see the edges of this white one if you look closely. This makes the colored version a little bit more “sticky”. So really be careful not to let this roll up on itself.

Here at Suite Pieces, we’re determined to make all the mistakes so you don’t! With our latest transformation we weren’t so careful when we took it off the waxy backing. Our roll sprung up and stuck to itself, resulting in a big hole in the middle of our beautiful new transformation…oh no!!

So how might you avoid making this mistake?? A few things…first, you might want to reverse roll the transfer with the wax paper still attached, so it’s not so rolled up. Second, don’t peel off the whole wax paper backing. Peel a section at a time and cut it off so that you can keep the areas that aren’t placed yet protected. Got it?

Also, the clear paper that the transfer is actually attached to isn’t super flexible. Therefore, if you try to bend it around edges, it will do a little bit of cracking. Of course, we’re OK with things looking a little imperfect & vintage-y ; ) Again, if you look closely in between the drawers you can see what I’m talking about.

So what did we do to fix it? I had originally thought about using paint to fill in and distress…but that would have been a bit more work than I wanted to do. If I haven’t told you before, I’m “lazy” when it comes to my DIY projects. I want them done fast! We actually took another transfer and cut out the area we needed to fill in…then laid it down on the dresser to replace our mess. Yes, we did use 2 transfers, but we were able to salvage the 2nd transfer, which we’ll use to doll up some other pieces ; )

After we got the transfer applied, we used a clean Waxine wax brush to “set” the transfer. You want to make sure it’s completely down on the surface & attached. If you’re having a hard time getting the transfer off the backing, just lay it back on the piece and rub & peel. You don’t have to rub hard, you just need to use a little bit of finesse and almost roll it off the backing. The last step we did was to lightly sand the transfer to distress it a bit. We used our favorite Flexible Sanding Pad, which has a very soft grit to it so it doesn’t sand super hard. This will help to add to the vintage look. You can still see the overlapping a bit, since you know our secret, it’s a bit obvious. But if you didn’t, I’m betting you’d think it was just part of the look. We finished our drawers with a colored wax that we made using Napoleonic Blue Chalk Paint® & Annie’s clear wax. How gorgeous is this?? Sandy did a fantastic job with it! We also lightly distressed the Old White body & sealed that with clear wax as well.

You can also use decor transfers on glass. We found it’s best to seal it with a clear topcoat finish, which will help to set it. We used Artisan Enhancements Clear Topcoat Sealer on this piece. We’ve also done these on old vintage windows. They look fantastic!

We hope you’ll stop by soon and check these out in person. They are so much fun!! And there are so many different patterns to choose from. So what project do you think you’ll use these on?? I know your wheels are spinning!!

See you soon!!