This piece was intimidating as all heck. It was huge and boldly styled, those claw feet make a statement on their own. When I picked this up, my husband wasn’t sure what I was thinking!
I just look for things that are different, styles I haven’t done before, and well made. This thrift store find met those criteria, so I brought the set home.
I couldn’t be more happy with the choice! Here is how I created this bold sideboard and how to add gold leaf to furniture!
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Materials list:
Paint in black
Craft store ready Gold Leafing
Mona Lisa metal leafing adhesive size
Redesign with Prima stencil
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Luckily, I didnt have to choose a finish, because a customer scooped this up from my unfinished inventory. I’d done a piece for them before and seen their home which helps immensely when doing custom work. It was a brand new build and filled with bold decor, sweeping ceilings, a lot of original artwork, and Asian-esque design.
My favorite custom orders are when a customer gives me a color and then sets me free. I can usually envision a piece from there. At first we were looking at black and copper, but that changed to gold.
I started by cleaning this piece well with Cleaner . The original finish was fairly smooth, so I also gave it a coat of gripping primer.
With a clean surface to start with, next was two coats of a nice, true, black. I got great coverage over the white primer in two coats of Caviar.
I knew other than the gold leaf, this would be a simple finish underneath, so I sealed my paint with satin clear coat. I did tint the clear coat with just a bit of Caviar paint to help prevent streaking over the dark black paint. Tinting clear coat is especially helpful over the darkest and lightest colors, whites, blacks, navy, etc.
I spray painted my hardware a matte black so they would blend in with the body, except where the gold leaf went.
We wanted a random look with the leaf. I started in an upper corner and carried it down in a diagonal using mona lisa adhesive sizing as my adhesive. Let it get a bit tacky, then lay the leaf, tearing the edges so it doesn’t lay in a perfect square,
The leaf needed more so I used the Imperial Damask stencil by Redesign with Prima, taped it in place with painters tape, and used a sponge applicator to sponge the gold leaf adhesive size into the stencil.
Once the adhesive was on, I removed the stencil and laid gold leaf over the whole door. I’d never done this before, so wasn’t sure how it would turn out. I left the adhesive to dry and went back with a soft brush to brush away the leaf that had no adhesive under it. To my surprise, it worked! The voids brushed away and the adhered portions stayed!
I over brushed a bit for a dramatic aged effect. It was imperfect and had tons of character.
I replaced the two pulls I was missing with gold pulls from Hobby Lobby, added a gold drapery tassel, and this was ready to stage!
This Bold Gold Leaf Sideboard is one of my favorite pieces! Look how well it photographed too!
