Getting the right gold tone is so hard! There are so many different beautiful shades out there but you have to go off of what is in your house already! My brass is mainly based on the Savoy House Warm Brass! So I can't use a lot of the lighter toned golds because mine has a more vintage feel to it! So this weekend I decided to give one of my favorite decor pieces a makeover! And of course... I doubt many of you will be surprised that I went gold!! It took some sampling of different paints to work but I got it just right!
My project this weekend was this big clock that I got in 2012 at an antique store with my mom! When I saw it, we just clicked! We were true love andI love how it looked like a big pocket watch! I decided to pass on it because we were out of town and I knew my husband would complain we had to keep it safe all the way home! And the gold wasn't really my style at the time so I wasn't so sure about it! So I took a picture (this one!) and waited on it! Well, you can guess where this went... we went back and bought it for $35!! Steal!
We painted it a light gray and has been a main decor piece ever since! Look at some sweet memories that this clock as seen!
But it didn't fit the light and airy "farmhouse" vibe that I had at my last two houses! I am going for a bit more vintage, moody, modern feel! So I decided to take it back to its original color of gold!
These are the three colors I picked to try. I had done some research ahead of time and even in the isle to decide which 3 gold paints were going to be my best bets! These were the three that I came away with!
You can see they are very different!
The Rust-oleum Bright Coat was by far the shiniest! It is a real "true" metal gold color!
The Rust-oleum Metallic in Champagne Bronze. This was by far the least shiny! I thought the color was intriguing but I was afraid it might look like the frame of the clock would just look brown! I don't think this would be the case for all projects but for this ONE, I wasn't sure about it!
The Rust-oluem Universal Pure Gold was a good gold color if you didn't want as much of a sheen as the Bright Coat gave off! Notice the paint drip! I did this on purpose (see why below!!).
I ended up picking the Bright Coat because I thought it might give the clock a real metal feel like it is a pretty giant pocket watch! haha! Plus, I figured I could just paint right over it if I hated it!
A few spray painting tips with metallic colors (silver, gold, copper):
Make sure your item is prepped correctly! I cut corners and spray painted a glass vase last week black and I used a primer and paint combo and the paint peeled off! I definitely knew better!!
Make sure its clean! These metallic colors show dust and speckles easier!
Spray paint in several thin coats! You do not want those annoying drips (like you can see in the sample cups I did above!) Especially with metallic paint! It can really be a huge bummer! You can see there how it can settle with those metallic flecks in a different color!
Give it plenty of drying time! Somewhere inside! I always paint outside but bring the item inside to dry! The weather can be too cold or too humid or too hot to really dry nice! I find less dust spot too!
Last, when painting with metallics try and touch the paint as little as possible! It can "tarnish" your fingerprints overtime! Not all spray paints are created equal! If you doing hardware, I MIGHT spray a clear protective coat over the top! Just play with it and beware that they can tarnish! See the pic of a console table we painted years ago!
Ready to see the *BEFORE... BEFORE... AND AFTER*!
I am going to link these paints for you! You can also find them on my Liketoknow.it page!
XO, Stephanie
