Fast and Beautiful DIY Finishes for Accessories: Part 2

By Lindaleyble @LindaLeyble

What I love about reviving accessories that are sitting around my house collecting dust is that it’s such a quick fix and that it saves you money.All you are investing is a little time and some paint.

Here are a few other accessories that I revamped in my home…

A few months ago, I went to Robyn Story’s blog and noticed that she had used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint to decorate some books she had.I thought that this was a great idea – but I decided to try it with Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint in Typewriter.It went on easily and seemed to really just penetrate the fibers of this old book cover.

 

After I did two coats (and this paint really dried quickly, so this was a quick project) I then decided to stencil the covers with a brocade stencil from Melanie Royals.Since the spine had antique gold lettering, I used an antique gold stencil crème from Royal Design Studio.

I sanded back a bit after stenciling to have the covers seem a bit more antiqued and faded. After finishing the covers, I took my stencil brush and drybrushed the antique gold on the 3 edge sides of the book to brighten them up a bit as well… hope that Charles Dickens approves!

Candleholders are my favorites to re-do, of course.This one I did a little differently.I used variegated leaf in green (you can buy this at Michael’s) for the middle part and I used a green metallic paint for the top and bottom parts.To adhere the leaf, you need to paint first if your surface is a bit shiny as mine was.Apply size first – then you sprinkle the leaf on when the size is almost dry (a dry tack – not wet) and brush or use a soft cloth to spread and burnish the leaf flakes onto your surface.

Before – well actually during!!

I antiqued the entire piece because I love everything to be a bit aged.Some of the leaf on mine did come off a bit in one spot but I love how that looks.If you don’t like that, you can re-apply the size and apply more variegated leaf.

Before and after

And finally, here’s a plain candle holder that I painted with several colors of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (Duck Egg Blue and Old White) and then I added some browns and chestnuts tones to add some age to the piece.

If you like the wall finish – please follow me via email because I will be giving a tutorial on how to do this finish!

Let me know what accessories you have changed with paint