Bronze and Gold Super Ornate Media Console Transformation

This vintage dresser was an awesome find from a local thrift store. My trusty sidekick, Robin, discovered it. She sent me a photo and I said "YES! Will they hold it until I can get there tomorrow?" She generously bought it, help them load it in her van AND delivered it to me! What a gem! (Her and the console!) This piece didn't sit in my shop too long, until someone wanted it and was open to my suggestion on how to transform it. Note, I completely modified the hardware finish too!

 

This is what it looked like before, minus the gold faux satin fabric curtain behind the mesh wire on the center doors. It looked like someone had sprayed stain along the top and bottom edges in an attempt to darken the finish. Did I mention they did a lousy job?

 

 

See how dull the hardware was? Yuck! I typically just tweek the hardware finish but this hardware screamed for a facelift.

I knew the piece was going to be bronzey with gold accents. The piece was sanded and thoroughly cleaned. I started with a metallic copper/bronze primer base. This alone greatly improved the piece.

You can see on this door where the hardware was that the piece was originally more golden amber in tone.

 

The doors of course were primed the same way as the base. Since they were being COVERED in gold leaf, I applied the adhesive size directly to the bronze primer. If you would like a more detailed explanation on how to gold leaf, my blog sponsor, The Gilded Planet has some awesome video tutorials on gilding. 

Does it make me weird that I get so excited at how awesome gold or silver leafing looks on really ornate objects? It's an awesome way to transform outdated picture frames and mirrors. I will be hosting a basic gilding kit giveaway starting Sunday night. Be sure to check back so you can enter. Or even better, click that " Get my blog posts sent to your inbox" button on the right so you don't miss out!

Somewhere along the way (which I did not photograph), I top coated the primer coat with a bronze metallic paint. I used Charred Brown Brass from Blue Pearl. Their metallic paint has so much shimmer so that when you glaze over it you achieve a really rich, warm glow.

So here's the piece with the metallic base with the gold foil accents. It would look awesome in Las Vegas! Not so much in the average persons home. That's where the glaze comes in to play.

I used a raw umber oil glaze to tone it all down. You can see the difference in glazed and unglazed. The left picture of the doors show the glazed door on the left. The picture on the right shows everything glazed, except for the top drawer. What an amazing difference!

 

 

 

I let the glaze dry for several days, then coated the entire piece with an oil varnish. It really turned out cool. I truly apologize for my photography skills (or lack of). I am working on it. I think you get the idea. This piece was a beast so shuffling it in and out to try and get better lighting was a challenge.

 

So don't forget for all the gold leafing junkies out there, I will be giving away a basic gilding kit in the next week. Sign up by email so you don't miss the post. What piece would you transform with a gilding kit for gold leafing?

 

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Making Coffered Ceiling Trim Pop with Gold Leafing

Gilded and Glazed Coffered Ceiling Trim

I'm sure you are beginning to notice a pattern with many of my projects. Lots and lots of gold, silver or copper leafing! There's also leafing with patterns in it. I hope to complete a project soon so that I can introduce you to it. I really love working with it. It can be a bit messy but not in a drippy paint way. More of a bits and pieces of leafing floating around. The good news is, it vacums up easily.
This project has been one of my most favorite lately. We completed some really cool ceilings for this client in their dining room and foyer a few months ago. They really wanted to eliminate some of the white trim without feeling like they had to change all of the trim. Since we had "leafed" the trim on the other accent ceilings, it  was a perfect plan to carry that into the coffered ceiling. So this is how we achieved it.
First, we taped off the trim, separating the crown moulding of the room from the coffered trim. We taped square by square and painted as we went. One coat was sufficient since most of it is covered by the gold. I love to have a bit of the base color popping through the cracks here and there. It adds to the aged look.

Ceilings can be done from a ladder, but scaffolding makes it sooo much better! I highly recommend it. Here's the finished brown.

Next, we brushed on the water based size. This is what makes the sheets of leaf stick to the surface. This goes on milky and dries clear, and of course I neglected to take a photo so you'll need to use your imagination. Once dry,  the real fun begins! Applying each sheet, one at a time. This is actually imitation gold and is really shiny at this point.

I have actually had the opportunity to use 22kt gold leafing before. It's much thinner and the sheets are smaller. I hope to blog about it in a future blog. We continued leafing and worked on the ceiling over the course of 2 days.

The client was a little worried that she had made a mistake.... she thought it was done. I assured her with the glaze it would tone down the shimmer and be perfect. So we started glazing in a burnt umber color. The burnt umber gives a rusty tone to the gold but it was just what it needed. You can see the difference here between the glazed and unglazed. It definitely blends better with the walls and the previously finish ceiling

 

After glazing, we were able to pull all the tape down and see the finished product!

 



Does this inspire you to try a new finish on any of  your ceilings? Be sure to sign up to receive my posts by email. I will be giving away a basic gilding kit in the near future. This kit is perfect to use on small projects. Maybe a mirror frame update or a small piece of furniture. The Gilded Planet will be sponsoring this giveaway. I love promoting my product sources. I've spent many years finding the products that work for me and my clients and I am proud to share them with  you!

Dramatic Dining Room and Foyer Ceiling Makeover

My client of many years wanted to update the painting in her home. When she moved to her new home, for some reason she hired another artist to do some work for her. They did a fabulous job in the powder room, but the dining room was lacking, for a dining room. It would have been super cute for a kids room or a nursery (see cloud mural below). She wanted to paint over it and do something more elegant. There was also a unique trey ceiling in the foyer as well. We had done a metallic wax finish in the coffered ceiling of her family room several years ago. It had a chocolate base with champagne, gold and bronzey red metallic.

All three ceilings needed to work together. We were repainting the walls to have a warmer, copper undertone. So we decided to do a very similar finish in the foyer. Instead of gold we used copper. We also pulled the copper from the foyer into the dining tray ceiling. Treating the trim the trim of both ceilings with copper leafing added more drama and eliminated some white trim with out feeling the need to do all the trim. Here's the before dining and foyer photo.

Dining ceiling before

Foyer ceiling before

 

Both ceilings were taped off and painted a chocolate brown, including the trim. Then we taped off the trim so we could finish the ceilings. 



 

The dining room ceiling was painted a red bronze metallic in a brush metal technique.

 





When that was dry, we added a copper metallic glaze. This added additional dimension to the ceiling and softened the contemporary feel of the brushed metal technique.





After this dried overnight, we were able to tape off the ceiling so that the trim could be completed. We did the dining ceiling trim and the foyer ceiling trim in the same color and technique. I order all of my leafing supplies from The Gilded Planet. They have everything you could ever need for gilding. For all the foodies out there, they even have edible gold leaf! That's something I must try someday!

Back to our trim. We applied one coat of water based size. It goes on milky, but dries clear. Once dry, it will remain tacky for 24 hours. Size is what makes the sheets of leaf stick to your surface. It dries pretty quick, less than 1 hour. Now the fun part.. we start applying each 6" x6" copper leaf square side by side. I love an old worn look so I don't work about cracks and holidays. It adds to the character. You can get total coverage if you want that look.

It's very Las Vegas shiny at this point. You can burnish it to tone it down but I prefer to glaze it with an umber oil glaze or even stain can work. I talk about metal leafing in a bit more detail in my Silver Leafed Chest of Drawers post. The Gilded Planet also has some excellent tutorials.

After painting the foyer ceiling brown, we applied our 3 metallic wax colors, champagne, copper and burnished red with a brush then blended it together with a flexible trowel. If you are curious about the technique, let me know and I'll do a tutorial.

 



We did the trim the same as the dining ceiling trim. Once everything was dry, we glazed the ceiling and the trim with the same umber glaze.


Copper metallic tray ceiling

Metallic wax tray ceiling



So which ceiling do you like best?