ALUMINUM LEAFING - NOT AS EASY AS IT LOOKS-YIKES! | DIY

RECYCLE

Continuing our theme of green commitment and the ways that you can incorporate it into your life .............

I have read so many articles/blogs of people recycling/up cycling (I call it re-treasuring) old furniture by either silver leafing or aluminum leafing and decided to give it a try.  My husband and I  had these seriously dated night tables that really needed a face lift.  So off to Curry's Art store I went to buy some Aluminum Leaf.  Aluminum Leaf is less expensive than silver leaf but with the same effect!!! How hard could it be???  With 5 packages and a bottle of sizing in hand, my husband and I raced home to get started on our new project. 

Night table before. CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE

I decided to lightly sand the surface of the wood and I primed the entire night table in white paint.  So far, so good.  I applied a light coat of sizing and let it sit to allow it to get sticky.  This is when the nightmare began.  I removed the 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inch square of aluminum leaf from the book I purchased and attempted to put it in place.  Didn't realize that this stuff is like working with cob webs!!! As soon as it touches the very sticky sizing, there is no way possible to remove it in the event that you misaligned it, which by the way, I did over and over and over and over again.  After several hours, buckets of tears, mountains of frustration and a nightable that looked worse than when I started I decided that this was simply not going to happen.  I was sooooooooooo ticked (not the actual word I had in mind if you know what I mean) that I had wasted all this cash on the Aluminum Leaf and it ended up being a complete disaster. 

I had this vision of these night tables finished and sitting on either side of our bed. My wonderful husband said, oh well you tried, no worries, let's just go out and buy some new night tables.  I said well, "let me see if I can just sand this stuff off and maybe we can salvage them by just painting them and adding new hardware".  This is where this dreadfully long story takes a fantastic turn for the better.  I began lightly sanding with a sanding block and found that I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the new look of the Aluminum Leaf. The ugly overlapping seams between the squares of leafing were now gone and the night table had this wonderful texture.  WOW!!!

Here is the finished nightable.  We added some round marble handles and black square feet for a contemporary feel and VOILA!!!

CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE

Here is a close up of the top to show the texture effect I was taking about.

CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE

VERY GREEN, WHAT DO YOU THINK???

Soulier Design Studio specializes in Sustainability, Eco Friendly Design, Products and Lifestyle

  http://www.soulierdesignstudio.com