Kitchen Mantle Makeover - Reveal

Ingredients and tools, I once used a Styrofoam plate to paint with so I brought that back out, it does work but on small scale projects the best and smooth surfaces.

I used the joint compound to adhere the burlap fabric and then put two to three layers on top and around that.   I found that I fought the burlap through the whole process so I probably would not use that again.

Then I put on a base coat of paint, I used what I had, so the base coat was a light yellow color I had mixed from SW Ivoire.  Next, a layer of metallic glaze I picked up from the craft store, the color was Medieval gold but it looked coppery to me.  Coppery, that's a word, right?

Then I added brown, probably would have been best to have gone to the paint store and had some colors mixed but alas, no . . . . .  I used a heavy texture acrylic paint and again hard to work with.  Sorry no picture of the brown layer but you can see it here.

Then I decided the burlap I left showing was not working, so I decided to cover that up.  I brought the joint compound back out and smoothed some on, sanded, painted and basically started over.

This little guy will never be the same and the nails either, I've washed and washed and still not good.

I just kept adding paints and smoothing them out.  The real tool of the day was a damp rag, I used it a lot.

In the end I think it may be too dark, so we'll see, I need to live with it for a while.  It seems really strange looking up there and seeing it so dark.  The picture above shows it to be darker than it really is.

There is no washing of dishes when I am engrossed in a project or cooking of food, poor honey.