Use Gold Leafing And Saltwash To Create An Amazing Textured and Unique Finish

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I want to walk you through an amazing furniture makeover today. You can use gold leafing, Saltwash and different chalk paints to create this layered and weathered furniture finish. *This blog post does contain affiliate links, these do not cost you extra to use but I do earn a small commission. Thank you so much for your support!

Supply List:

• Degreasing Cleaner For Your Furniture

• Leafing- (I used gold and copper)

• Leafing Size

• Pureco Chalk Paint in Myrtle (Australian Brand)

• Saltwash Texture Additive

• Daydream Apothecary Deadly Nightshade

• Daydream Apothecary Sea La Vie

• Daydream Apothecary Cosmic Conquest (one of my colors)

• Daydream Apothecary Tailwind

• Daydream Apothecary Dreamcoat

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Prepping The Chest For Paint

As you can see the handles were on upside down. Whenever I see upside handles my soul dies a little inside. So obviously we need to take them off and fix that! You can gently pry your handles off with a flat head screwdriver and then use needle nosed pliers to pull the nails out. After the hardware is removed, clean the piece really well. Use a degreasing cleaner to really get your furniture nice and clean!

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Painting A Base Coat On Your Furniture

A few of the reasons I like to paint a base coat before I put the next set of colors on is that, it gives the leafing a good matte base to stick to. Also after I add the Saltwash later and scrape back, the Myrtle color is what will show through. I do not seal this layer of paint and I applied two coats for full coverage.

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Adding Leafing To Furniture

Make sure your paint is completely dry before you start this step. The first thing you want to do is apply your metal leaf adhesive wherever you want your "peek a boo" leafing to appear. For this I used gold and copper. Let this sit and "dry" or "tack up" for about 15-20 minutes. Then you will carefully place your metal leaf over the adhesive.

Make sure you cover all the areas you applied the adhesive, otherwise it will remain tacky. Once you have completed that, take a dry clean paint brush and brush over to remove excess leafing and smooth it out. I will warn you, this can be messy, have a vacuum on stand by!

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Adding Texture Additive As A Resist

I LOVE adding texture to my projects! You can create so many different looks. One thing you can use texture additives for is to use it as a resist. What do I mean? First you want to sprinkle the Saltwash on your furniture. Focus on dropping larger areas of the medium on the leafing. Think about it like this, whatever your texture looks like after you sprinkle it, is what it will look like after you scrape it back. Sprinkle the powder anywhere you want the leafing or Myrtle green to show. Once you are done, spray the entire area with water and allow it to dry.

Pro Tip: If you can add the powder to wet paint it is a bonus. Sometimes certain processes won't allow this. Like this piece for example.

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Adding Another Layer of Paint

I let my pieces dry overnight when I use the Saltwash as a resist. It means it will be very dry and I won't have to worry. I will tell you that you will have some powder come off when you paint over it, this is normal. You will want to make sure you pour your paint into a separate container so you do not cross contaminate your paint with the Saltwash.

For this project starting from the top to the bottom I added the following colors:

Deadly Nightshade

Sea La Vie

Cosmic Conquest

Tailwind

I ended up blending these together before I scraped back the areas of texture additive. It is hard to explain that process in a blog post so I always make a YouTube video explaining it as well. You can find it here 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

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Exposing The Gold Leaf

Once the paint is fully dry, it is time to scrape the Saltwash off. This process will expose the Myrtle and leafing that is under the blues. Sometimes there is powder residues left that looks white, take a dry paint brush and brush over it to remove it. Once you are done you can do a light sand over everything with a 220 or higher grit sandpaper. Wipe away the dust and seal. I love Dreamcoat by Daydream Apothecary it is very user friendly and the sheen is almost like a wax.

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Final Product

I hope you enjoyed this!! Let me know it the comments what you think and if you want to try this out!! Happy Creating XOXOXO Crys'Dawna