The Navy Door

Decorate. Repurpose. Restore.

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How To Apply Silver Leafing To a Wall

There are many ways to accent your walls either by paint, wallpaper, artwork or mirrors. I had a client that wanted to give her business a unique look, so after doing some research, I thought that leafing would be the perfect look for The Wink Beauty Lounge in Royal Oak, Michigan.

Before:

We first started by removing the mirror, light fixture, and the shelving off the wall. For this project we were working with about 18 feet of wall, leaving the pink as the background. I decided that we needed a bulk size of leafing along with Wunda Size (used to adhere leafing to surface) to tackle this job. I ordered my products from The Gold Leaf Company based out of New York and spoke with a man named Steve that was very helpful in the ordering process. I ordered a gallon of the Wunda Size, one silver role, and one gold roll of genuine leafing. The gold roll was 4 inches wide and has 69 feet of leafing, the silver roll was 6 inches and the same length. I opted for the rolls because I was covering a large surface at one time which is easier to apply than individual sheets.

In the picture below, on the left side, you can see how textured the wall is, which wasn’t totally helpful but ended up working out just fine in the end. Pictured on the right-hand side is a small piece of what the leafing roll looks like to give you a better idea of what you would be working with.

Now, I want to tell you we did order both colors because we originally thought we are going to rotate in between gold and silver on this wall. But after testing out a small surface we decided just to go with the silver which was definitely the better choice for this project.

Prep Work:

I started out by using Green FrogTape, I bought from Home Depot, around the sidewalls and baseboards, to ensure I didn’t affect the walls I was not working on. I divided the wall out into 6-inch and 4-inch increments knowing that I would only be applying leafing to every other section. I used a straight ruler to draw a light line, with a watercolor pencil, down the wall, as a guide for the leafing. I used a watercolor pencil in case I messed up, that way I was able to wipe the line clean and re-draw. By drawing out the lines first, this helped save on the product as I only applied the sizing to the areas that I was going to apply the leafing on.

Wunda Size 15-minute is specially formulated for every type of gold or silver leaf work. Its tack time is 15 minutes and will hold its tack for 24 to 30 hours depending upon atmosphere and surface conditions. Before applying transfer gilding (leafing), make sure that the surface has been coated with Wunda Size (also known as sizing). It is important that this has dried to the right degree of tackiness to ensure that the gold adheres properly to the surface. Different types have different setting times, so follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Sizing may be applied with a brush or spray gun, no thinning is necessary. Be sure to clean the brush or a spray gun in water rather than in lacquer thinner.

Application:

I’m not gonna lie, the leafing was a little hard to work with in the beginning, but after you get the hang of it, it goes on pretty quickly and easily. Make sure to wear some latex gloves and try to handle each piece by the tissue paper avoiding to touch the leafing. It is also easier, especially when you first start working with this product, to only handle a smaller section at a time. The great thing about leafing is that if you miss a spot you can go back in with another small piece and cover it up. Whatever doesn’t stick to the sizing will fall off, and blends in flawlessly.

Final Steps :

Here’s what the wall looked like right after I was done applying the leafing. I did go back through and highlighted each of the lines with a silver Sharpie oil-based Paint Marker, that I found at Michaels, which gave it a little more dimension. After letting this product dry for over a week I went back through and applied a Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane Gloss Oil-Based to the leafing. If you have a light color wall like this pink, the polyurethane may yellow the paint. In this case, you would have to sand the yellowing down, clean it with Krud Kutter, I got this one from Home Depot. I used the adhesive remover because it is one of their most powerful versions of this product that they have, then paint over it with a latex-based paint to remove/cover the yellowing.

Well, what do you think? I loved the way the accent wall turned out. It looks great with all of her furniture and mirrors and is as unique as her salon. Please let me know if you have any questions about this project, as I am happy to help!

Xo Christine

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Spooky Halloween Bucket Makeover

I love Halloween! I love to decorate the house in spooky Halloween decor, but as usual, I don’t always find what I’m looking for. I happened to come across this plain black witches brew bucket for a great price at a discount store and knew that I could elevate the look of it to match the rest of my decor.

Above are a few pictures of the black bucket, after I wiped it down with a 50% rubbing alcohol and 50% water mixture to remove any dirt or oil that may have been on the plastic. After that, I taped off the inside of the bucket so I didn’t get any spray paint in there. I just used a brown paper bag and some FrogTape that I had at home.

I decided to spray this bucket gold, because it’s one of my favorite colors, and because I know it would really pop against the other decor. I started out by spraying one light coat for gold, top side down, then added a second coat after waiting for it to dry. I used Rust-Oleum Metallic Gold that is seen in the picture. I bought mine at Home Depot, where there is also a Rust-Oleum Silver Metallic available.

When it was completely dry, I flipped the bucket back on the base and sprayed the rim of the bucket gold, that I knew I missed when it was flipped over. I then sprayed Rust-Oleum Ultra Cover Matte Clear sealer which bonds to plastic and will help prevent the gold from stretching or chipping.

After the sealer was completely dry, I wanted to add some glitter to this bucket, because why not? I used the Martha Stewart Crafts decoupage glue and sealer which I found at Michaels along with the black Glitter that I also found there. If you can’t find the decoupage glue, Mod Podge glue and sealer works just as well which you can also find at Michaels. I used the brush that came in the bottle to apply the glue around the fake handles of the bucket and the rim of the bucket, then applied the glitter to the glue and waited for it to dry.

I wanted to make sure the glitter would stay on the bucket well, so I decided I would seal the bucket again with the Rust-Oleum clear sealer. It did dull the glitter a bit, but still looks great and I knew the glitter would stay where I put it!

I then set up my Cricut Explore Air Gold, that I purchased from JoAnn Fabric, and selected two images from my Cricut library, and cut them out of a 651 black vinyl. The size of the image would depend on the size of the bucket you have. The Witches Brew decal was measured at 3 x 4.5 and the Unfiltered Poison is 3 x 4. The tools that I used for this project were the weeding tool, which looks like something your dentist would use, and the scraper.

After you cut the image out of vinyl you have to “weed” or remove the unwanted pieces of the vinyl so you can just see the image you cut. Make sure to weed out the pieces in between the letters, such as the small triangle you can handly see when you cut out a capital A. Unfortunately, I have made this mistake before but didn’t realize it till after the project was done.

After you have removed the unwanted vinyl, you want to take a piece of vinyl transfer tape, shown in the picture below, and cut it to the size of the image. What is great about the Cricut transfer tape, is the grid that is printed on the tape. This will help you align and center the image, so when you are ready to apply the decal it goes on straight the first time.

As you can see in the picture I found the center of the bucket and applied the Witches Brew decal to the bucket and used the scraper to essentially rub the vinyl off onto the bucket. The best way to apply this vinyl is to start from the center of the image and rub your way out to the corners. Continue rubbing out the image of any bubbles or bumps before you peel off the transfer tape.

I followed the same procedure on the backside of this bucket to apply the Unfiltered Poison decal as seen in the picture below.

I have now completed the look I was going for, sprayed the bucket gold, applied glitter, and decals to make my Spooky Halloween bucket come alive. But there was just one more thing to do, you guessed it, I sprayed the entire bucket again with the Rust-Oleum clear sealer to ensure the glitter and decal stay in place.

What do you think? I loved the way my Halloween bucket turned out. When I first started this project I thought I would make this for me, but as soon as I figured out what I wanted to do, I knew that this would be perfect for a family friend as a house warming gift and she loved it! Please let me know if you have any questions or comments on this project as I would be happy to help.

XO Christine

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Repurpose Your Old Wood Picture Frames

I love repurposing old items into new usable pieces. Before I get rid of any old items I don’t use anymore, I try to come up with ideas on how to reuse them.

When we lived in Massachusetts, there was an abundance of vintage shops that had so many great finds. There was this one place I would always pass as I went back and forth to work which had a variety of old wood picture frames that I fell in love with. Not knowing what I would do with them when I purchased them, but knew I had to have them. At the time I owned a little jewelry store and used the picture frames to display jewelry on the wall. After I sold the store and moved back to our home town, I was determined to use these frames again but didn’t know what I would do with them. A family friend that I happen to do many different projects for had asked me to make her a chalkboard for her eyelash studio. Instead of just making a plain chalkboard I thought I would elevate the look by framing the board with my old wood frames. I had two frames that I thought would be perfect for this project.

As you can see in the picture above I had spray painted both of these frames gold, which I actually painted for my store in Mass. These frames have a lot of small detail to them, which I really wanted to highlight to pull the whole project together.

I resprayed both frames gold, to touch up any nicks or scratches the frames may have had while they were in storage. I used Rust-Oleum Metallic Gold Rush that I found at Home Depot. Although I used the same color, one wood frame was a little darker than the other, to begin with, which is why the color looks a little different and also the lighting, unfortunately, was not great either. I then attached the chalkboard pieces, which I also purchased at Home Depot where they cut them to size for me. I used Liquid Nails for small projects, to adhere the chalkboard piece to the back of the frame and let it dry overnight.

When it was completely dry I was able to stand the frame back up and painted the small details of the frame with Deco Art shimmering silver acrylic paint and Deco Art glorious gold paint from Michaels, with a small paintbrush by Craft Smart.

What do you think? Lis loved these chalkboard picture frames for her studio, and I loved that I was able to repurpose pieces that I already had. Please let me know if you have any questions about this project, I would love to help!

XO Christine

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Knobs, Knobs, Knobs!

I consider myself to be a smart shopper. Don’t get me wrong I like really nice things and I’m willing to spend the money, but if I can save myself some of it, I’m all about that too. I realized after I painted my cabinets I would need hardware for them, but didn’t realize that you could easily spend a few hundred dollars on a piece of metal that opened and closed your cabinet door.

I looked on all the major sites that you could think of for the knobs that I wanted and of course, at the time I couldn’t find them in the color I was looking for, the story of my life! I happened to be at Target and spotted these hammered looking knobs that I loved, but only came in silver. They were on clearance, so I thought I could just paint them. I also found this half-moon drawer handle at JoAnn Fabric, that I also had to have. The two places that I would have never thought I would find the handle for my house, but there they were.

Here are the knobs I bought from Target. It is a little hard to tell but these knobs have a hammered look to them, you will be able to see the difference in the finished picture.

I unpackaged these knobs and stood them up on a wooden skewer that you might use for chicken kabobs. They are cheap and I already had them at home! I stuck them in a block of styrofoam while I sprayed them, and let them dry there as well. I took them out of the styrofoam, while still on the stick and lightly touched up a few spots that I had missed. I used Krylon Foil metallic copper spray paint that I found at Pat Cantans. Although this store is no longer in business, I attached a link for Walmart, where I found it for the same price.

After giving these items time to dry, I coated them with Zinsser Bulls Eye Shellac in clear from Home Depot. Be sure to follow the directions on the back of this bottle, because if you tend to get too close you will get a different finish, but I still went with this product because it is extremely durable for everyday usage.

These half-moon handles are from JoAnn Fabric, and although they were not on clearance, I was able to save some cash by using their coupons that you can find on their website or their app. I simply laid these handles out in a shallow box with newspaper and sprayed each handle to match the knobs, and added the same shellac sealer to finish out this project.

After two days of letting these knobs and handles dry, we attached them to the brand new kitchen cabinets that I refinished, and my bathroom cabinets. I love the way they turned out! Please let me know if you have any questions on this project, I would love to hear from you!

Xo Christine