Happy Monday! Hope you all had a great weekend! It was a gorgeous Spring weekend here, made up of some of my favorite Spring activities…. flea market, soccer games, painting, and cheering on my Frederick Half Marathon friends! I have been keeping busy getting ready for the Lucketts Spring Market as well and can’t wait to share some of the pieces I’ll be bringing as part of team Sweet Clover. Stay tuned for a couple of reveals this week!
Today though I am going to share a fun little piece that went to a new home at our last sale. I found this corner shelf at one of my favorite thrift shops. I will be honest- I can’t stand painting bookshelves of any sort! But this was smaller than most, and the price was right, so I hauled it home for a makeover. It was in a sad before state, as is the rest of the basement where I was working…. (please just look at the shelf, and ignore all the piles of paint cans, laundry baskets….).
I knew what I wanted to do to this one… As you might know by now, I am having a bit of a love affair with gold. I decided to paint it with Old White chalk paint, lightly distress it, wax it with clear wax, and gild some details. Well, this piece had a mind of its own so my plan was altered slightly
This piece was a bleeder…. meaning that the original stain was bleeding through the white paint in some areas. It was not too severe or blotchy, but it sure wasn’t going to have that solid old white look I wanted, at least not without much more work than I cared to do. I moved on to plan B.
Rather than clear waxing this piece, I used my trusty Briwax in Golden Oak, which helps to antique as it protects and waxes, and also helps to blend in those pesky bleed through spots. I applied the wax with a rag and moved in the direction of my paint strokes/wood grain. I used a wax brush to get it into the harder to reach details. I then used a rag to buff it all over.
Finally, I used King Gold gilding wax from Catfish Studios, applying with my finger and running along the details I wanted to gild.
And here it is now!
Check out those gilded details!
Below you can really see how the Briwax gave the piece an aged effect.
And of course I staged it for photos with my favorite gold leafed flower pots.
Have a great Monday! And if you don’t want to end up gilded, hide from my gold-loving fingers.
