How to Emboss Furniture

There is something really special about an unexpected detail when it comes to decorating your home right? Things that seem to catch my eye always have something just a little different about them so when it came time to redo my grandmother’s old cabinet and make it into an industrial chic bar cabinet for my dining room, giving it a little something special was on my list.

Adding the metallic contact paper and then the metallic pattern to the drawer front was a really easy and fun way to get that element of surprise and today I’m going to show you how to emboss furniture to create a unique pattern and a tiny bit of texture.

First things first. Do you know what embossing is. I didn’t know what it was until a few years ago. Here is a good example. You know when you get a fancy wedding invitation and the font is slightly raised off of the paper? That is embossed. Embossing can be done in almost any color and did you know you could do it yourself with a few supplies from the craft store?

Embossing it typically done on paper crafts, but it is just not my style to stick to the norm so I decided that I wanted to emboss on furniture.

Keep in mind that when I say it is possible to emboss on furniture, I’m talking about a small portion of the furniture. As I will be explaining, you will be pouring embossing powder on, and will need to dump it off, so it has to be a portion of the furniture that you can easily lift and tilt, like a drawer front.

So for this project you will need…

• a stencil and a few pieces of painters tape
• embossing powder in the color of your choice. Michael’s and Paper Source both have great selections as do most craft stores.
• a clear embossing pen
• an embossing heat gun (Here is the one I have, and here is one from good ol’ Martha Stewart.)
• the surface you want to add your embossed pattern to

I started this project in the house which was a giant mistake. Embossing powder is a bit messy and because it is a large ridged surface you are bound to get a bit on the floor when you are dumping it off, so my advice is to do this outside.

Step 1: Place your stencil onto your surface and keep it in place with a small piece of painters tape.

Step 2:  Outline your stencil with your clear embossing pen. This gets a bit tricky because you can’t see where you’ve marked but you’ll get the hang of it. Also keep in mind that you don’t want this ink to dry before you have a chance to get the powder on, so work in small segments.

 Step 3:  Lift the stencil, pour the embossing powder over your marked area and then dump it off onto a large piece of newspaper so that you can gather up the extra, put it back into the container, and use it again. When you dump off the excess embossing powder give the drawer a tap from the back side to really get all of the excess off. I also had to blow some of the excess off or use a dry small paint brush to ensure that you don’t have any embossing powder where you don’t want it.

Step 4: Use your embossing heat tool to emboss your pattern. You will see it sort of cook right before your eyes. Don’t stay in one place too long or the paint on your surface will bubble. If you’ve never used these tools before, of course it would be a good idea to practice on some paper first so you get the feel of it. You want the embossed pattern to raise slightly and have a shiny finish.

Continue these steps lining up your stencil each time until you are done. Once you’ve used the heat tool, there is no dry time so you can touch it as soon as it is cool and place your stencil over the already embossed area with no problem.

Now ain’t that pretty! This drawer front is actually a hidden drawer on the inside of my industrial bar cabinet and the gold accents are a perfect compliment to the industrial detail I did on the top of the cabinet. I think this might just be my favorite addition to my newly revamped dining room.

So what do you think? Do you love the unexpected detail?

Want more from this room?

Check out the dining room reveal here.