Faux Copper Patina Wall - DIY

I love textured walls, they add so much character and natural depth to the room. When we decided to paint a feature wall in the living room (now renamed as the "Coffee room"), I knew I wanted a copper patina effect on the wall - more patina, less copper.

So, having a genuine copper patina “ verdigris” would be mind blowing, but that would also burn a hole in my pocket. So, the artsy way it was. Excited with a huge canvas, I decided on the following supplies list.

For this project, you’ll need this stuff:

Supplies 
Basic Technique

A basic faux copper patina research will show you that it requires a gorgeous blend of the brown and bluish-green. So, I began with my primed and painted white wall and masked off the required section.

I knew I wanted darker edges, so I went ahead and painted the edges of the walls with the Pookie Bear brown, and some random parts in the middle to finish off the leftover paint in my brush.

Next, I wanted to get some texture on the wall. For that, we mixed some Plaster of Paris (POP) in the Dublin Jack paint itself. I know it sounds insane, but trust me, it works! That gave me a little more drying time as well. With a spatula, I placed this mix on the wall. When using this technique, it is best to work with little batches at a time. Here is how it looks after the wall was covered. I know, crazy, right? Don't worry, it will all make sense in the end.


Next, to get rid of the "white" in between, I mixed about 10 parts of water to 1 part of Pookie Bear paint (in a rough estimate) and painted the entire wall. I also had some Finnabair rust paste lying around, so I added it on the edges, some spots in between to add to the texture, also to get a direction on where I was going with this.


Here's a close up.  You will notice that different layers already peeking through. We are getting there, I promise! 


Since our base is now ready, we will start to lighten the wall and add more layers. So, to the Dublin Jack, I mixed white. The more the white, the lighter the shade. I went for just about one shade lighter. Blot some light Dublin Jack onto the wall to create cloudy areas and fill in the sparse areas first.


Crumple the plastic bag to make a ball and then smooth some of that out. Remember, we don't want to hide the layers, we only want to add more. Here's how it looks after filling in the wall. Somehow, it still didn't look complete to me in terms of complexity of texture, so I went one step further.


I added some Methylated spirit to a spray bottle and sprayed all over the wall!

After this, I used a craft sponge and diluted Pookie Bear paint (almost 1:10) to distress the wall, and blend in the shades, in the process, also making it look less patchy.

You can see the shades peeking through on different parts of the wall:




I then went and finished off the edges, blending and darkening it with some Finnabair rust paste.


I also sprayed on the left over diluted Pookie Bear on the wall. Remember, there is no right or wrong here, just how darker, or lighter you want to go.


I had some Dublin Jack left on my tray, so I diluted it and sprayed it on the wall to finish the project. The key to recreate the complexity of copper patina is to make as many layers as possible.

After removing the masking tape, here's how the final wall looks like. I am in love with it!! It's almost like a piece of art :)


You could add bigger patches of shades of brown, but I am happy with how it looks. And, yes, those are my pallet wood tables.


 

Also, I wanted more patina look than copper anyway. My new favorite room in the house!

So, off to come up with a new project, let me know if you will be trying this out!

xo. Divya

DIY Industrial Laundry Sign

I hate laundry. Anyone else with me on that?

It’s that task that I always put off to do. And don’t even get me started on the pains of ironing.

Our laundry room has been empty since we came into our home. A brand new washing machine and dryer did fill the floor space, but the walls have been empty ever since. We would like to add some storage cabinets on the walls, but that’s one of those snowball projects that is pushed to "some day".



So, I decided to add some decorative stuff on the adjacent walls at least, and what better way than to create a hand painted, industrial LAUNDRY sign. (Just in case no one knew what was going on in this little area.)

Here’s what you need to make a vintage rustic Industrial LAUNDRY sign. Or you could use the idea to make something similar for any room!

Materials:
  • A piece of wood - I used some recycled wood I had lying around the garden of our home.We used a hand saw to cut the piece to the size we wanted.
  • Sandpaper/ Sanding block
  • Computer print out and a pencil
  • Wax crayons
  • Clear timber wax polish 
  • Metal bits: 
  1. Kinetic 15 x 150mm Galvanised Pipe
  2. Kinetic 15mm Galvanised Flange
  3. Kinetic 15mm Female Galvanised Tee

Instructions:
  1. First we cut the piece of wood with a saw and sanded the entire piece of recycled wood along with the edges. I used a cloth to wipe away the fine dust.



  2. After the wood was sanded, I printed out the word LAUNDRY on my computer to the size I needed. I used a regular font as I only wanted an outline to give me some idea of the size and placement.

  3. I used a waxed crayon to color the back of the printout, placed it on wood, and then with a pencil, I traced the outline of each letter onto the wood where I wanted it to go, but the correct way. This rubbing effect transfers the pencil outline via the wax crayon from the back of the printout onto the piece of wood.


  4. After transfer, I painted them in with black acrylic paint. I didn’t fill in the letters perfectly going for the vintage look.



  5. I took some sandpaper and sanded off the paint in some spots as well. You can see I smudged the letter "R" a little bit, but that seemed to vanish after sanding and waxing.
  6. Then I finally finished it off with a good wax to seal it up and add some sheen and finish.

     

    The clear wax works like magic! Look at that gorgeous wood grain and color coming through!



  7. Next step is optional, but hubs helped me attach the fun metal bits to the wall to give it the industrial look. (Now it goes with the industrial pipe lights in the dining room, and the pipe fittings on our entertainment unit!) A trip to Bunnings got us all the tidbits we needed. It is so much fun when we share the madness of home decorating!

Here’s my fun industrial LAUNDRY sign hanging on the wall. I think I'm addicted and will make lots more!

I love how it looks! What do you think?