Small wooden stool - July

I picked up this little wooden foot stool at the corner second hand shop for £10. I don't have a 'before' photo but it was pretty sad: scratched, unvarnished, falling apart a bit. I could see it had potential and wanted to practice my decoupage skills on it.

The bottom of the table and legs have been sanded with my exciting electric sander. First time I sanded something I ended up with red dust over my entire house, I was looking at the world through a red film for at least a month afterwards - this is despite having something to catch the dust. And I'm always slightly scared that the sander escapes me and I end up charging after it as it takes out the staircase and narrowly misses a cat... But this time was less dramatic, although the mask makes my glasses steam up which adds an extra frisson of danger!
Once sanded, I stained the base and legs with wood stain which has brought out the knots and grain beautifully.
My local Oxfam shop sells old music sheets for less than a £1 so I bought some from the 1920s/1930s and picked out arty bits. Usually I would judge anyone who cuts up music, but these are sheets that have seen better days and are probably so unfashionable no one would buy them anyway. At least this way, they get a second wind.
My first attempt at decoupage a few years ago ended badly when I didn't glue down the whole pieces of paper. I got air holes underneath the paper and it became bouncy. So my recommendation is to PVA the whole thing, and make sure that every inch of paper is stuck to the wood before you start, and give 24 hours for it to dry. I also found some perfectly coloured wallpaper to go around the edges of the top of the table and merge the music paper with the wood.
After the PVA was dry, I layered on varnish and let each layer dry. Between layers, I gave the top a bit of a light sand to take off some of the thickness and shine. I have read that the more layers you put on, the more the effect of a flat surface you get, but I think too many layers and you start to get a plasticy look which is not as good.

I'm pleased with the final product. I especially like the effect of the wood stain and varnish. I went through a period of wanting to paint every item of furniture (mainly because my house has a sauna wooden ceiling, wooden floors and a wooden staircase and it was all a bit much), but now I have reined that in; if you're not careful you end up with an entire house which looks like it has been thrown up by an over-enthusiastic paint monster... which, to be brutally honest, no one really wants.