From Black to Copper

Today is DIY Day over at Kimba's (A Soft Place to Land). She's been hosting a do-it-yourself party every Thursday now for a few weeks and there have been so many responses that she's going to keep it going every week for awhile...yay! Head over there to check out hundreds of makeover posts, DIY home projects, great recipes and crafts, etc.

Figured I'd show you guys a DIY mini-makeover project I did in our guest room (which you haven't seen yet, stay tuned for a full tour soon). I had a blank wall above the dresser that needed something...I thought a mirror would be perfect so that guests would have somewhere to check themselves out. Here's said dresser before:





I happened to have a round mirror that was the perfect size hanging out in the basement but I didn't like its color or finish for the room. Its front was flat glossy black and the sides were white...weird but it was free. I thought it would be way cooler if it had more of a metallic finish. There are some orange accents in the room and copper seemed like a unique element to bring in. Now of course painting a flat surface with metallic paint is not going to be the same as real metal...it won't bounce the light around or reflect anything but I figured anything was better than the before (sorry for the horrible pic)!





So I went to Michaels and found this stuff called "Sophisticated Finishes" Metallic Paint (it comes in gold, silver, copper, pewter, iron, etc.) and the Primer and Clear Sealer from the same line.

First I taped around the outside edge of the mirror itself where it abutted the frame to protect it. Then I applied a coat or two of the primer to create more of a surface for the new paint to stick to (no sanding). Then a couple coats of the Copper color. When it was "done" I wasn't exactly satisfied with the look, I wanted it to feel a bit more aged. I went and got my regular acrylic paints and decided to play around with it a bit. I brushed some Burnt Umber (dark brown) along both edges of the frame and then wiped it off a bit with a paper towel to give it that distressed edge look. Then I took my trusty old and nasty toothbrush that I keep with my art brushes and used that to "flick" some Silver, Gold, White and Burnt Sienna paint splatters onto the wide flat part of the frame. (I love using a tooth brush to get that random splatter look. Just mix a bit of your acrylic paint with water, dip the brush in it and sort of bang the handle of the tooth brush against your other hand and let the paint fly off onto whatever you are working on - a bit messy but the result is worth it.) Finished it off with another coat of the Primer/Sealer and ta-da!

{on the dresser - 2 paper lanterns we got as part of a wedding gift, 2 books about Boston sports, a hand-made bowl from a local potter, one of the many glass vases from our wedding with some "gasp" fake flowers}

Much better, no?! More pics of the in-progress guest room coming soon:)