No. 119 Black and Gold Desk

I am so excited to share this project with you!

Over Christmas "break" I saw this furniture makeover, it was one of those moments where I just stared at it for a while.  It's really not my personal style, but I just thought the piece was stunning. 

source

So, as all good DIYers do, I figured out how to do it myself.  I had to wait for the right piece to come along, this desk was it!

Here's a quick rundown of what I did...

This desk got two coats of General Finishes Milk Paint in Lamp Black - seriously you should try this paint, it is great!

Tape off your pattern, I wasn't too worried about how precise this would be because I wanted the chippy look, so my tape lines were guidelines mostly. 

I papered off all the parts that I didn't want to get sticky with spray adhesive.  (Side note...my basement floor is permanently gold-leafed...so if you don't want this to happen to you, use paper on the floor).

Here's what I used: Loctite spray adhesive, Gold Leaf, and a chip brush.  (Side note #2...this is not really the "proper" technique, so don't use this tutorial if you are trying to really gild something). Spray your furniture, a section at a time with the spray adhesive.

Next, just rip, crumple, stick.  Repeat.  Don't stress out here, this is fun.  Rip, crumple, stick.  Pull the wax paper off as you go.  

Just keep going until you get it covered.  I just used my fingers to smooth it down into the adhesive, and sometimes used the brush to "burnish" it a bit. 

Once I had it the way I liked it, I sealed it with about 4 coats of Poly.  Tip: I used spray poly only on the gold leaf first to really get it "stuck".  Once dry I went over the gold leaf again with a brush on poly (General Finishes High Performance Poly in flat finish) - there were a few flakes on my brush as I did this.  Then I used poly all over the desk on my 3rd and 4th application.  This poly gave a beautiful low shine with minimal brushstrokes. 

I just love the crackly, chippy finish that is in bright gold!  These small black knobs finished the piece off perfectly!

This fun desk is available in the Roots & Wings Etsy Shop!
Let me know if you have any questions...don't you want to go gild something?!?

Blessings,
Jenni

PS - Last summer a friend and I made copper terra-cotta herb pots using this same technique, they turned out smashing! 

Tweet