Thursday, May 13, 2010

Ceiling Medallion as Wall art

Okay...for my first real project post.  It's an easy one.  Here are the steps:

1. Find a badly painted foam ceiling medallion at a thrift store.
2. Buy spray paint (Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze - ORB - to be exact.)
3. Point the can at the medallion and spray - about 3 light coats.
4. Make a note next time to buy the really cheap .99 cent plain black paint for the undercoats, then use the more expensive ORB as a top coat.  (Told you I can make a penny squeal)
5. Highlight with some gold acrylic paint using a dry brush technique (I'll "splain" below).


Showing the first coat of paint.  Sorry, I forgot to take a before picture.  Trust me, it was really ugly.  I don't even think it had paint on it, just some orange looking stuff in the crevices.



Here's my painting station.  It was a windy day, so I had to hold down the plastic with rocks.  And the plastic...an old shower curtain liner.  We have rusty water which is really hard to clean off shower curtain liners, so I buy the cheap dollar store liners.  They last about a month and make great paint backdrops when I'm done with them.


Here she is with the last coat on.  Even with the beautiful ORB, she looked a little "flat" to me.  Plus I wanted to hang her next to a couple of pictures with gold highlighting on them, so I decided to dry brush some gold highlights on.



The gold paint is Decor brand that I had on hand.


To dry brush, start with a dry brush.  Now did that sound intelligent or what?  Squirt a little paint out on some newspaper and dip the tip of your brush in it.  Brush most of the paint back off on the paper.  Then very lightly brush the gold onto the raised areas of the design that you want to highlight.  Remember to use very little paint and brush very lightly.  You can always add more paint if you need to.  Keep a damp paper towel ready so if you do use too much, you can very quickly wipe it back off.  If worse comes to worst and it's already too dry to wipe, all is not lost...just spray another coat of ORB, let it dry, and start over.




Close up of highlighting.


Because this was foam, not wood, I couldn't just nail in a picture hanger.  So I used gorilla glue to glue a piece of ribbon to the back.  Hot glue might have worked, but I didn't trust it.


Pin It


The finished product...well, almost.  I want to find something for the hole in the center of the medallion.  I thought a neat vintage pin might work.  I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Exciting news! My blog is just a week old and I've already been featured over at Under the Table & Dreaming! I am so humbled. Stephanie Lynn has a fabulous blog and I go to hers everyday for inspiration. Be sure to check her out!


UndertheTableandDreaming



I am linking to these parties:







UndertheTableandDreaming




Photobucket








Childmade




toolsareforwomentoo




23 comments:

  1. Nice. That looks really good, I like it.

    Great tip on the two base coats. I will have to remember that one.

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  2. It's gorgeous! I have so many empty walls that I haven't done anything with since we painted and this would look perfect on them! Great job!

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  3. Thank you Kenzie! I just visited your blog and I love your ideas. I'm sure I'll be copying a couple soon.

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  4. Clever and beautiful! I love to see unique design elements and this is one of them. Very inspirational. I am bookmarking for my future reference. Love it! Feel free to share this on my Boardwalk Bragfest party this Wednesday (hint hint)

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  5. Thanks so much Jan! I certainly will link up to your Bragfest. I'm heading over to check it out now. I assume I have to link up on Wednesday?

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  6. This is gorgeous! What a fabulous piece of wall art. The detailing is incredible and I love the color! Thanks so much for joining the Sunday Showcase! I greatly appreciate it. Hope you have a wonderful week! ~Stephanie Lynn

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  7. Thank you Stephanie. I love your Sunday Showcase. Always so many great ideas!

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  8. Hello! Just wanted to let you know I'll be featuring your medallion today! Stop by and grab a featured button if you like. Thanks so much for joining the Sunday Showcase! ~ Stephanie Lynn

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  9. What a fantastic idea! It turned out really nice. Great job :)

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  10. Thank you for linking to Bobbypins Boardwalk, but I think you forgot to put a link to the party on your post. Please give it another try, ok?

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  11. I have to tell you that this is absolutely beautiful. The finish you achieved is perfect. I'm sorry for the confusion about linking, and thank you so much for putting your project up again. I love it!

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  12. Thanks everyone! I must say I was surprised one of my first projects has gotten so much attention. It was a quick and fun project.

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  13. Me again (haha)

    I wanted to thank you again for linking your project to the Boardwalk Bragfest. I also wanted to let you know that I featured your project on the blog, and you can see it here:

    http://wwwbobbypinsboardwalk.blogspot.com/

    Please feel free to grab a "featured" button! I hope to see you again this week!

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  14. What a beauty! Thanks for sharing and I really appreciate the tutorial on your painting technique!

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  15. Very pretty! And what a nice paint job you did! Thanks for linking up. Grab a button if you'd like.

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  16. Wow!! This looks terrific! I never would have thought to use a ceiling medallion. Great job! Visiting from Tools Are for Women Too. :)

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  17. Good thinking on the cheap base coats. Am absolutely jealous of your medallion. Envious, even. It looks great!

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  18. I love those ceiling medillions and would have never thought to do this! So cute!

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  19. This turned out really nice. Great job!

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  20. I think a vintage pin would be great - she turned out fabulous...I love medallion type wall art...

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  21. Great project! The highlighting with the DecoArt paint turned out fabulous! You should link up to the DIY CLUB INC party coming up the first Friday in August. Watch here for more info...http://diyclubinc.com/.

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  22. I love this! Never thought of using a ceiling medillion as wall art. ORB spray paint is my new best friend. I have been updating many metal surfaces in my home with it. It's alot cheaper than buying new. It has worked really well on door nobs that get alot of use. Great job!

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  23. Think about adding a brass stamping in the center such as some of the larger ones I offer on my site. (VintageJewelrySupplies.com). You have a great blog! Thanks for all that you share.

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