Vintage Step Stool Makeover (with 6 Free Mandala Stencil Files)

In this vintage step stool makeover, I painted an old stool with a deep-colored chalk paint and then adorned the seat with a stunning mandala stencil brushed with dark silver and rose gold metallic paints. I’ve included 6 free mandala stencil files for both Cricut and Silhouette machines for you to download and enjoy!

When I look at my recent posts, it seems like it’s been a long time since I’ve painted anything. But the reality is, I’ve been painting all along! It is just that I don’t post every time I decide to change the paint color of a room or a piece of furniture. I guess it happens a little too often, so I don’t want you to question my sanity – or Greg’s sanity in that matter…or should I say whatever left from it, hahahaha 😀 [People, you gotta understand something here – we’ve painted our interior walls three times in the four years we’ve lived here. THREE!! And we have 18-foot ceilings! GAH! The woman drives me bonkers! -Greg]

What can I say – I love painting and the power of paint! Hence I just keep changing the color of things until I am happy with them, and this little vintage step stool is a perfect example of that.

I bought this little stool 3 years ago from a tag sale for $3 and I really love the shape of it. It is one of those old world stools and it’s very useful for a shrimp like me.

When I gave it a makeover for the first time, I was influenced by all things Farmhouse on Pinterest, hence I painted it with these grain sack stripes. But the thing is, it never matched anything in our home and became kind of a sore thumb. Besides, when I painted it 3 years ago I never applied shellac before painting, hence the knotty part in the wood started to bleed up into the white paint. When that happened, I had no choice but to keep this guy out of sight. That is, until last weekend, of course…Yup, I again got an uncontrollable urge to paint last weekend, so I decided to give this little guy a second makeover. 😉

Just recently in one of our facebook groups, I saw a couple of painted bed side tables and I wanted to try the same color: Wise Owl Chalk Paint in Abbys color. So as usual, right after cleaning the step stool, I grabbed my favorite paint brush and gave it 3 thin coats of paint.

Once I finished painting the step stool, I worked on the stencil. I love mandala stencils, so I prepared a bunch to choose from. Though I was leaning towards the first one, I couldn’t decide, as they all look great. That is when I turned my babes to help me.

Among these 6 mandala patterns, my babes also liked the first one best, as it was the least busy one.

Oh, before I forget  – if you like any of these mandala stencil cut files, you can download them from the VIP Patch. I am sharing 6 PNGs and 6 SVGs as and they all will work with both die cut machines: Silhouette or Cricut 😉

After uploading my file to the Cricut Design Space, I scaled my stencil to the size I want and sent it to my Cricut for cutting.

Once my stencil was cut and weeded, I placed it on top of the seat using transfer tape.

Next, I picked my dark silver metallic paint and started stenciling the mandala design using a sponge brush. The paint I used was Martha Stewart’s metallic paint in Thundercloud color, as I had it on hand, but if you can’t find the same one, Modern Masters Metallic Steel Gray color is pretty close to what I used.

Once the second coat of dark silver metallic paint dried, I started stenciling the middle part of the mandala with Folkart’s brushed metal paint in rose gold color. Here is a note about Folkart’s brushed metal paint: it goes on much easier and looks much better if you use a brush to paint it. But for the transition area where the color goes from rose gold to dark silver, I found that a foam brush works better.

When the rose gold paint dried, I carefully peeled off the stencil. After slightly sanding the stenciled surface, I wiped the stool clean and applied Annie Sloan clear wax to the entire step stool. And that was that!

Not too shabby, is it?

I really love the look of mixed metallic paint, and I’m pretty amazed how a little stencil completely transformed my old step stool to something this lovely! I hope you like it, too! 🙂

Now it is time for sharing the free stencil cut files: if you want to use any of these mandala stencils files, please help yourself by clicking on the picture below. You’ll find all these beautiful mandala patterns under the “SVGs – Stencils” section of the VIP Patch. Enjoy!

Handan, xo

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