patinated metal finish on cabinet

 

 Laundry Room update:

I had to work Saturday, and Sunday I had some client samples to work on and a client's piece of furniture to paint, so I didn't make quite as much progress as I would have liked.  I did however manage to finish stenciling one wall and, after the appliances were picked up, prime (twice) the wall behind the machines where the "subway tile" is going.

One thing I did manage to finish was the cabinet for the laundry sink (except for the pulls--I didn't paint them because I was planning to replace them with something nicer---then I realized the sink isn't level and the doors don't quite line up.  I don't want fancy pulls to call attention to this, so I'm going to just paint those.)

Before it looked like this, plain white melamine.  Though my sink hasn't been that white since 2007.  I did spend quite a bit of time scrubbing it this weekend, though, and have faith I can get almost that spotless:

 

 

I wanted a finish something like this metal covered chest from Restoration Hardware.  However, I wanted a more distressed finish---something that looked  really industrial and used.

I 

 Something more like this:

So I primed the melamine with tinted x-i-m, painted with a blend of silver paints from Modern Masters, and then had a lot of fun with stain and paint thinner:

 

I still need to paint the knobs and tweek the finish just a little---I think I may have distressed it just a little too much, but I really like it, especially with the graphic stencil.

Bronze Age: A ceiling before and after

Ceilings are an often overlooked design element. In new homes, even expensive custom ones, they are often little more than expanses of white sheetrock. It's a shame, however, because they can be a wonderful place to introduce color, pattern, and shine. In this case, we wanted to create drama in a dining room. It has a distinct ceiling from the rest of the downstairs, but a large opening to the adjoining foyer. Because of the openness of the floor plan, we wanted the walls to be the same as the foyer, but we wanted a more dramatic feel in the dining room. The solution was to do a metallic bronze finish on the ceiling.
The ceiling and medallion (necessary to hide the hole left by moving the chandlier) before:

The primer/basecoat: Warm metallics need a red undercoat. Even when using opaque metallic paints, the warmth (or lack of it) from the basecoat is apparent. If doing a metallic finish yourself, you will be very unhappy with the results if you attempt it over a white or light colored wall. The darker the desired finish, the more crucial this step is. In this case, I was able to combine priming and a red basecoat by using a primer tinted with Sherwin William's Flower Pot, which is a great, orange based red without blue undertones.

Next, several layers of metallic paint. I used a mixture of Modern Master metallics, including Antique bronze and English Browns. Modern Masters are expensive (About $35 for a quart), but they cover very well, and come in great colors. Even so, you may have to mix several different colors to get the exact shade you want.

It took about 4 coats, but I ended up with a deep luscious bronze to bring drama and warmth to the previously stark surface (to get depth, coveage, and evenness, it is important to use several sheer layers of paint instead of one thick layer).