hey guys it's carrie from lovely etc and today i want to show you five different paint finishes you
can use to really transform your diy projects i am a huge fan of shopping at yard sales and estate
sales and thrift stores to find really unique home decor that not everybody else has and it's dirt
cheap the problem is a lot of times i see tons of potential in it but it doesn't actually look
cute yet and paint is the easiest way to transform anything it's cheap it's easy and it's actually
really amazing what you can do with paint so today i'm going to show you
five different paint finishes on five different thrifted things that i've been hoarding and
haven't had time to get to yet and i'm excited to get creative and make something beautiful
today so here's what i am working with i have this vintage gold balance that not only is the
finish peeling off but it also just looks super gaudy and so i have a different idea in mind for
this i have this black lantern type thing that you can put a candle in that i want to use on my porch
and right now it is black and there's absolutely nothing wrong with this finish but it's super
generic and i know i can do something better with this i'm always finding these little wooden candle
sticks at thrift stores and yard sales and they're fine every now and then i do use them as is but
i know that i can make this way cuter i have this cool vintage marquee letter it's like an ampersand
it has a really dirty black plastic finish right now and i have this wall organizer pocket
i actually have several of these and again it's fine it's kind of cute but i have a vintage metal
look in mine that will really tie into the whole locker feel so i'm excited to do this as well
so there are about a million and one really cool paint products out there that you can use to give
your diy projects really cool effects but for this project i'm challenging myself to only use paint
so no wax no glaze no special additives none of that just paint because even though there's
a million fancy products out there you really don't have to use them sometimes they make it
a little bit easier but paint is always simple it's always cheap and you can do pretty much
anything you want with it so let's see how it goes first up i'm working on this metal
lantern and i want to give it a really simple blue green patina i didn't have the exact color
i needed in my paint stash so i mixed together two shades of paint to make a nice lightish blue-green
color and i will list all of the exact paints and colors that i used in the video description
but you can definitely get the same color without using the exact same thing that i used the main
thing is to use either a matte acrylic craft paint which are the really cheap little bottles of paint
in the craft store or a chalk paint so that you get a great matte finish to apply the paint i used
a dry brush technique where you put just a small amount of paint on your paintbrush and then wipe
most of it off and then i stippled the paint on so i kind of dabbed it on with my paint brush and
then i followed that up with a clean paint brush with no paint to help spread the paint around
a bit more because i really wanted an uneven textural looking finish the key to most authentic
faux finishes is layering so once my paint was dry i came back and used the exact same color of paint
but this time i made a color wash with it so i dip my paint brush into water put it in the paint back
into the water so that my paint brush was really wet and then brushed it all over my piece and
then used a paper towel to blot off all the excess water and excess paint this just gives the whole
thing a really layered look because even though both layers of paint were the exact same color
the watered-down paint is a lot less opaque just adding a bit of water to your paintbrush and then
blotting with a paper towel seems like such a tiny thing but it actually makes a huge difference in
how your paint finish looks i'm really happy with how this paint finish turned out it was
super simple with just two steps and one color paint and it really gave this lantern some much
needed character next up these cute metal bins i want to give these metal bins a vintage steel
type paint finish and the great thing about this finish is it can work on anything even things that
aren't actually made of metal the first step is to paint the entire surface with a flat gray paint
chalk paint works great for this and so do acrylic craft paints which generally also have a matte
finish next you're going to add black paint and again you want something with a matte finish
and we're doing a wash again so get your paint brush really wet add some paint and then brush
it on working in small areas and as soon as you finish one area get a paper towel or an old rag
and wipe off all the excess blending in the black with the gray paint that's already there
the final step is doing a wash with a wet paint brush and silver paint this step is very subtle
and you may not be able to tell much of a difference in the video but in person it makes
a big difference because it adds just a subtle bit of shine that gives the look of actual metal
and here's my finished bin i think that these bins look like they were definitely meant to have this
brushed metal finish next up is this little wooden candlestick now there was absolutely nothing wrong
with the wood finish on this candlestick to begin with it was just pretty blah i started with dry
brushing some white paint all over the candlestick remember dry brushing is when you get a little bit
of paint on your paint brush bristles and then wipe most of it off before actually painting
then after dry brushing i used a paper towel to help blend in and wipe off any excess paint
for all of the dry brushing that i'm doing on these paint finishes i'm using these little chip
brushes they're super cheap and the bristles are perfect for giving a lot of texture to your paint
the next step is dry brushing on some tan paint i again didn't have the right color so i mixed
together a kind of a grayish tan and a dark brown to make the shade that i wanted remember with dry
brushing you don't want to paint a solid smooth coat of paint the point is that you're leaving
some areas unpainted so that the previous layers of paint can shine through after you dry brush it
on you can use a clean paper towel just to kind of blend and smooth the paint and that's it just two
simple steps for a really nice weathered farmhouse style candlestick this next one is my favorite
of all five paint finishes i started by painting the entire thing with a base coat of chalk paint
the chalk paint just acts as a primer so that the metallic paint can stick better to the metal
once the chalk paint is dry i used copper metallic paint to give everything a bright copper finish
for this piece i really want to tone down the gaudy factor so
i am going for an aged copper finish with a lot of patina and my bright copper was just
a bit too bright so i mixed together some aged bronze paint with some brown paint
and started dry brushing and using my paper towel as needed to help blend everything in
time for the copper patina i'm using the same two bluish green paint colors i used earlier
but with a lot more of the darker color this time because i want to make a darker turquoise
and i'm combining it with some brown paint to again help give more of that aged look so
i am dipping half of my brush in the blue paint and half in the brown paint and then blotting off
most of the paint so i can do a nice dry brushed finish all over my piece and again i'm coming back
to blot off and blend with a paper towel you could also just mix some of the brown paint directly
into your blue green paint but i like keeping them separate this way and on separate parts of the
brush because it just gives a lot more variation to your paint finish and finally i'm adding a
second shade of the patina color again i'm using the same two paint colors but this time i added a
lot more of the lighter shade so that my finished color is way lighter than the previous coat that
i did i'm dry brushing and blending again but this time i'm leaving lots of open space for
the previous colors to shine through and really just concentrating on accentuating the highlights
this finish ended up being pretty similar to the patina that i did on the lantern earlier
except that finish was a lot simpler with a lot fewer steps and this finish was more complicated
and took more time but the finished product is way more detailed and richer originally i was planning
to have more of the copper colors shining through but this project kind of took on a mind of its own
luckily i love the way it turned out and now for our fifth and final paint finish i decided to give
my vintage plastic ampersand an aged brass finish the best thing to do would have been to start with
a base coat of chalk paint or a primer like i did with my metal scale but i didn't do that i skipped
right to the metallic paint luckily it ended up adhering okay i started by giving the whole thing
a coat of paint in the color vintage brass once that dried i started adding more layers of paint
first i mixed together some aged bronze paint with some brown and dry brushed it all around the edges
and blended it with a paper towel and i decided it really wasn't dark enough so i dry brushed on
a mix of dark brown and black paint all around the edges and blended it in really this entire process
was just about adding layers of paint evaluating how it looked to see what it needed next and then
adding that color next as i was painting i tried to concentrate a lot of the darker colors around
the edges of the letter and a brighter shinier finish towards the middle because that is how
a lot of brass objects naturally age and i think that really helped give it a more authentic look
i love how this one turned out i think that the vintage brass finish is the perfect complement
for this vintage ampersand so there you have it five different paint finishes that are perfect for
transforming anything blah boring outdated ugly gaudy any number of problems these paint finishes
will help transform your finds into something that you really love and i'm really excited that
i was able to create all five paint finishes using only paint and some paint brushes water and paper
towels but no special waxes no special additives nothing fancy not even any sandpaper just paint
if you haven't be sure to check out my video on how to create a weathered wood look using just
paint what i really love about that video is it shows you how to create the look of weathered
wood on absolutely anything even plastic and i would love for you to subscribe to my channel
lovely etc where i share lots of inexpensive diy ideas for creating a home that you love