Gold, Silver, and Gilver... Furniture Inspiration AND Rub N' Buff

Stepping away from Christmas decorations for a minute. Not too far away though, gold and silver are still kind of Christmasy.   I love the look of silver and gold leaf furniture.  I've silvered leafed a few things in my day.  One being a large pot I use as a table with a glass top.  The only thing with silver and gold leaf, is that it can be kind of pricey for large pieces of furniture and sometimes you can see the faint outline of the squares of leaf.  You can't beat the luster and shine it creates though... or can you?   Here are some of the photos I have set aside for inspiration.

Image via Houzz.com

I love this gold chest of drawers above. 

Image via Censationalgirl.com

These stumps are my favorite.  They look like they've been dipped in a vat of gold.

There is really no paint that can create that look, at least none that I know of.  It's the luster that the paint lacks.  So what to do if you don't want to spring for the silver and gold leaf?...  Enter Rub N" Buff.  Not a paint but a metallic wax.  I had never heard of this stuff until a couple of months ago (Thank You Sandy) 

This stuff comes in several different colors but for the purpose of my upcoming projects, I'll be sticking to several shades of gold (Gold Leaf, Antique Gold, European Gold) and Silver Leaf.  A lot of you may be and probably are, already very familiar with Rub N' Buff, but for those of you who are not, like myself not long ago, here is the run down.  This stuff is excellent for small craft projects, highlighting details on furniture, and renewing vintage hardware.  When I searched the web for projects that used Rub N' Buff, most of what I found was it being used on things like picture frames and furniture that has raised detailing, furniture hardware, like drawer pulls, lamps, jewelry and that sort of thing.  I couldn't find any pictures where the entire piece of furniture was painted (waxed) with Rub N' Buff.  That doesn't mean there aren't any out there.  It just means I didn't see any.  So I started playing around with the stuff. 

For small projects like highlighting the raised areas of mirrors and furniture, or for knobs and other hardware, and craft projects etc. it just takes a dab of the wax on a cloth and then you literally rub it on, let it dry and buff it with a clean piece of the cloth.

For full furniture applications it is not quite that simple.  It takes some patients and a few techniques, but the end result is amazing and rivals that of the real gold leaf and silver leaf.  The gold colors are harder to work with than the silver, but I have been playing around with it for a while and have figured out how to get an even finish over the whole piece.  The problem with doing large pieces of furniture, especially things like table tops is that it dries very fast and ends up leaving an uneven looking finish.  Not to worry though.  I have figured out a way around that tricky problem.

I am working on several projects right now and my blog may become all about Rub N' Buff for the next couple of weeks, but you can achieve so many amazing looks with it that I am a little hooked on it right now.

Here are a few sneak peaks that I'm working on.  I still have some work to do with them, and I am perfecting my technique as I go, so to speak.

Here is how one of my chairs is coming along.

(European Gold)

 Another sneak peak   

A coffe table in progress.  This one is actually three shades of gold blended together.

These two will be finished soon and I have a few others to post about too.  So stay tuned for all the details and how to's!!

Smiles!

~Renew Redo~

Gold, Silver, and Gilver... Furniture Inspiration AND Rub N' Buff 2011-12-04T17:24:00-08:00 Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: Unknown