Fixing Up an Old Lady

A friend gifted me with a little project:

She was in sorry shape (the dressing table, not my friend) – missing hardware, deep water rings and a variety of nicks and dings. But still there was that great mirror…

Instead of stripping, patching, sanding and staining (the only way to rehab the dressing table from its current condition), I decided to do a little Pinterest research and gild it instead.

My tools were a paintbrush, a small bottle of Martha Stewart Metallic Silver Paint (from Home Depot) and Valspar Antiquing Glaze (from Lowes).

First I primed the desk – just a rough, single coat of primer. Then I slapped on a coat of the metallic paint. The paint is very thin, so it was pretty easy to see the primer underneath.

I let the paint dry for 24 hours, then painted on a second coat.

I did a few quick touch ups where I could still see primer, let everything dry for another 24 hours, then got to work glazing.

Glaze is a great way to take the harshness out of the metallic paint, making it look more like natural metal rather than a flat spray paint tone.

Simply place a bit of glaze in a container, dab glaze on a dry paint brush, wipe off most of the glaze and dry brush what remains on your surface.

Here’s what it looks like after adding the glaze – pretty messy, but you’re not done yet.

Before the glaze dries, take a damp cloth (or paper towel) and wipe off the glaze until it’s the thickness and darkness that you’d like. I wiped in a circular pattern, because I’ve noticed that most hammered metal seems to have a circular pattern.

The effect is subtle, but effective.

Let the glaze dry – depending on the weather this could be 24 hours or a full week. Apply a coat or two of poly (I like Miniwax Wipe-On Poly) to protect everything.

Let everything dry for a couple of days to prevent nicks in the protective coating before you add hardware.

I also added new mirror clip rosettes to compliment the gilding. The existing table hardware was brassy, so I painted over it with one light coat of the metallic silver paint. It was just enough to change the tone but not too much to appear painted.

(See that pretty thing in the background? That’s our antique bed frame that we’re in the midst of assembling!)

One last look at this girl’s gorgeous gilded (and antiqued) legs.