Last week I met a few of the local DIY bloggers from the Charleston Blog Society at the new AR Workshop for a night of DIY projects!  AR Workshop offers hands on workshops where you can make an assortment of items from lazy susans to signs.

You chose your project online ahead of time so the team will have all the supplies you need ready that night. We had 4 different wooden signs and 2 lazy susans in our group – and every design was different!  Their staff will walk you through all the steps to create your project and you pick every thing from the stains to paint color to make it totally your own.
I decided to do a lazy susan with our last name on it because I thought it’d fit perfectly on the circular breakfast table we got from my grandparents and whitewashed.  To start we sanded the top and sides of the wooden piece and you could also use a chisel to distress the wood if you liked.

Next it was time to color the wood.  I say color because you could choose from a variety of options like stain, washing, painting or a combination.  I chose the Dark Ebony stain so it would contrast on the whitewashed table and the paint would really pop against it.

I applied 2 coats of the stain on my lazy susan (top & side) using a sponge brush and was happy with the color. While the stain finished drying, I moved onto weeding out my design.  AR Workshop already had out designs pre cut on some stencil vinyl (I need to get some of this) so I used the weeder tool to remove the outside edge and then any place where paint would go.

After that I ripped off small pieces of transfer tape and put them on top of all the (now white) spots I just removed.  When you peel the backing from the vinyl, this helps keep the design in the right shape so you can get it on the wood in one piece.

Now you’ll remove the backing of the transfer vinyl so it just leaves the blue vinyl and white transfer tape.  Flip it over so the sticky side is facing down and place the vinyl on the wood.  Make sure it’s centered! You’ll use a wooden block to press over the design and make sure it’s adhered to the wood well, then slowly take the white transfer tape pieces off, leaving just the stencil vinyl of your design on top of the wood.

To help hold the stencil in place and create crisp lines while you paint, dab a little mod podge over all the edges with a small sponge brush.  You can see where my mod podge had dried around the edges of the W below.

When the modge podge is dry, it’s time to paint!  Dab a little paint on the design where you want it and remember less is more.  You can always do a second coat so don’t overdo it.  I wanted the outer leaf design and “est. 2016” parts to be a little lighter white while the W was more of a teal color.

Once all the paint was applied, this is what my project looked like while I waited for it to dry:

When it’s completely dry, slowly remove the blue stencil vinyl. First layer is done!

My design had our last name going over the W so I went back and repeated the steps of adding transfer tape, applying the vinyl to the wood, removing the transfer tape and then painting the design with a gray color. When the last of the gray paint was dry, I removed the stencil vinyl and was done!  We just added the bottom of the lazy susan and it was ready to go home.  Look at how cute it looks on our breakfast table.  I can’t believe it started as a plain piece of wood and was done in just 2.5 hours!

Here’s a group shot of all of our finished projects.  Be sure to check out the other bloggers that DIYed with me: Coastal Bride | Fashion and Fishing | A Lowcountry Wedding Not pictured: Pie Crust & Pixie Dust, The Messy Mop Maven

I had a blast and would go back in a heart beat.  I’ve already thought about having some friends do this with me in late November / early December for some Christmas themed projects to celebrate my 30th birthday. Who’s in??