Swan Studios Mural and Faux Finish Adventures: How to Paint Patina

Sunday, December 4, 2016

How to Paint Patina

How To Paint Patina

Quite often – perhaps more often than not- after a home is faux painted or mural-ed the homeowner wants even more work done. A few weeks ago a home with some exquisite Verdigris Patina faux finishes was featured here on the Swan Studios Inc Art blog:

http://swanstudiosinc.blogspot.com/2016/11/a-home-tour-in-deliciously-faux-painted_13.html

There happened to be a Hope chest in the master suite that had belonged to the home owner since her childhood. It was hard to see since the finish on the chest blended in with the finish on the footboard of the bed. She asked to have a faux finish created to help it stand out. It is now faux painted with aged copper verdigris and oxidized rust. It is GORGEOUS!

The chest was transformed through a series of steps:

1) The chest was cleaned with denatured alcohol to remove and dust and debris

2) A primer coat is painted on in a deep brown

3) A second base coat was applied in Metallic Copper

4) Using reactive metallic paint the lid and sections of the side were painted copper, while some sections of the sides were painted bronze:

5) Using the bronze sections as the blending point, reactive rust paint was painted onto the lower portion, the feet, and the backside:

6) Here's where the real fun begins. ( If you're using reactive paint-especially reactive rust- make sure you are in an extremely well ventilated environment. Occasionally, I get up and walk away from the paint because it will make you dizzy). Wearing heavy industrial gloves :

Blue and green reactive solution is sprayed onto the metallic paints and rust activator is sprayed onto the reactive rust paint:

7) Sections were retreated to get to the depth I wanted to achieve and a urethane was put onto sections while it was semi-dry allowing the paint to react with a crackle:

8) Permacoat is used to seal all the processes ( if you are using the rust reactive paint this step is extremely important and be sure to follow the instructions ):