Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend

 Every girl loves diamonds! The more bling the merrier. ‘Cuz, it don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that bling! I’ve created some spectacular and sparkly faux finishes over the course of my faux art career but this one takes the cake. A furniture piece that is metallic and heavily embellished with rhinestones. (Okay the title says diamonds and anyone willing to pay for real diamonds for this much embellishment is welcome to call me- Let’s do it!)

How it’s done:

1)      Select a piece of furniture that you love the shape of. The finish doesn’t have to be perfect.

2)      Sanding may be necessary to remove any old varnish.

3)      Be sure to wipe it down with denatured alcohol to remove the grime.

     4) Use a primer with a great grip. I’ve fallen in love with Valspar Bonding Primer. It dries quickly, gives a great white out coverage, and grips like crazy.

5)      Use a base color coat based on what you ultimately want the metallic to look like. For this I used a warm soft grey. (Remember metallic paints will reflect from the back side as well. Do a test on a board to be sure first)

  6)      I call this “Base coat 2”, a metallic paint coat. I typically do two layers to ensure it lays the way I want it to. Confession, no one had the exact shade I wanted. I wanted somewhere between Champagne and Silver but not quite what Modern Masters calls Warm Silver. That was too heavy a color. I ultimately mixed up my own color.

7)      Metallic Foil. In this case I used silver from Faux Effects. Heavily.

  8)    Seal the furniture. This is especially important since it will be touched every day. I’m a big fan of C500 urethane. It doesn’t yellow.

 9) The next step is the most tedious. Place the embellishments where you wish. I was fortunate to come across Michael Richards iron- on rhinestones that come in strips. It took forever to get enough though. Seems Covid was holding up production and shipping. So, patience is a must. Additional corner rhinestones were ordered through Dream Time Creations. They have a world of gorgeous embellishments. Be sure to use flat backed. The larger upper corner pieces that are surrounded by small rounds were ordered through Glory’s House. I tested several embellishment adhesives, and, for me, Arleen’s jewelry adhesive worked best. It’s available through Amazon and Michaels. The thin tube tip gives control. It dries quickly and holds strong. Again. use patience because it grips hard so you have basically only seconds to move things around if need be.

10) Place rhinestone hardware knobs and handles.

  And now here it is in all its blingy sparkly glory: 

Have a furniture piece that needs a sparkling lift? Contact me at Swan Studios Inc

Here are some more glistening furniture inspirations I've created 

"Glitterized" jewelry armoire:

Faux marble table top with metallic gold veins and pixie dust:

Metallic distressed finish:

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#paintedfurniture #embellishedfurniture #capecoralfauxartist