how to gild furniture {for diy cheaters}
Friday, August 17, 2012 by {darlene}

how to gild

Don’t freak out.

I am about to do a DIY post. Oh, come on. Have a little faith in my steadfast rejection of DIY projects: this one is for cheaters!

Since I am in the slow, healing process in trying to accept that I, {darlene}, am not indeed a millionaire…. And, you know, since I can’t just go out and buy whatever I want {sidenote: I would make quite an amazing millionaire. just saying}….I am attempting to embrace a few “projects” around my home that raise the level of beauty with minimal effort and minimal cash;

And, when we start talking maximum effort, then I start talking like this, “I wonder if I bribed the Nester to bring her glue gun over to my house…. or maybe, there is a home school kid who really, really wants to complete a ‘shop’ class requirement…. or maybe, I should just fork out the cash, people.”

I just want you to know what you are dealing with, friends.

Anyway! Back to the project! I totally scored these amazing amber, velvet tufted armchairs for $59 for BOTH of them. Not a rip, stain, stench or bug among them. So, I moved around some things in the mom-mobile, and brought two of these beauties home with me:

how to gild

But as gorgeous as the fabric and the tufting on these chairs is, I was not a big fan of the “black dot-speckled oak early 80’s den wood” that surrounded the frame.

Exhibit A:

how to gild

Exhibit B:

how to gild

Really. Why would you purposefully speckle wood with black dots?

So, from the moment I laid eyes on these chairs, I knew that they were really born to be gilded.  I knew I would need a simple way to gild the frames of my chairs. And, what I ended up doing is perfect for the DIY cheater {or maybe I should simply say, “the wise DIY-er who believes in beautiful shortcuts”}.

Have you ever actually read about the true gilding process? My, is it gorgeous. And my, is it difficult! Prepping, creating sticky surfaces, applying leaf piece by piece… If THAT is what it takes to gild a chair, I just knew it was not going to happen on my watch. So, I went on a mission to figure out how to gild and how to get gorgeous gilding results for a fraction of the effort. And now, I am excited to share my DIY cheater skills with you!

How to Gild Furniture:

 1. Tape off any upholstry.

how to gild

2. Lightly Sand. Or at your own risk, do what I did and skip this step.

3. Use a primer, such as Bulls-eye 123 {so you don’t have to sand!}. Apply to exposed wood, being careful around the taped areas. Allow to dry.

how to gild how to gild

4. Apply two coats of Liquid Leaf in Classic Gold {in a well-ventilated area}. Allow to dry between coats. {I only needed one little jar per chair!}

how to gild

5. Allow to dry thoroughly, and wax the surface with SC Johnson Paste Wax.

6. When the wax is dry and has hardened, remove the tape.

how to gild

how to gild how to gild

Basically, this was as easy as painting. The most difficult part was that the Liquid Leaf is VERY strong and I had to take regular breaks. It definitely gave me a headache, and I don’t get them easily, so be warned.

But the results! I am so happy with these chairs! And it truly was easy.

how to gild how to gild how to gild

how to gild

If you try your hand at this super easy gilding method, let me know! I can’t wait to see how it works for you!

Hmmmmm…. I wonder.  Are you dreaming up all of the things you can gild???

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