UPDATED ARCHED WINDOW FRAME 2020

I picked up this arched window frame at a Vintage Market sale.  I loved the structure, but not the finish.  In order to make it look vintage, they painted layers of mustard, rust and white paint. I  really disliked the rust and mustard paint.  I lived with it for about 2 years and then decided to clean it up, so I sanded all the paint off.  It took about 6 hours of sanding but I think the final result looks so much better.

This is the result of a days sanding.

 

On the second day, I finished the sanding.

I liked the bleached wood effect is much cleaner.

I believe this updated frame will find a place in my new craft room.

I still need to find some vintage book pages, postcards or old family photos to add to the cross bars in the frame.  It will be a work in progress.

FOYER SIVER LEAF MIRROR

I gave away my foyer mirror and table a few months back.  I had a gold guilded mirror that someone gave me a few years back.  I wanted to silver leaf it so it would blend with my grey walls.

The first step was to place post it notes underneath the frame so the silver leaf would not attach to the mirror and give shadows.

This is the product that I purchased at Hobby Lobby.  This package cost around $9.00, but I used my 40% off coupon which brought it down to $5.00 with tax.  It included 18 sheets and I only used 8 sheets on this project.

When I had done similar projects before, there was an adhesive made especially for doing the silver leaf.  After some research, I decided to go with  an Elmer's glue product shown below.  Place the silver leaf sheet over the sprayed area.  Leave the sheet underneath the silver leaf.  Use a soft bristle paint 

stipple the silver leaf into the crevices.  

My intent was not to cover the entire surface of the frame.  This next picture shows the project 10 minutes in to beginning the process.

Apologizing for the next blurry picture. 

Notice that I did not silver leaf the complete frame. It would have been a complete waste of product.

As you can see, this area was really very small for a entrance.  The mirror compliments the Respose Grey paint.

There is still some of the gold showing through. 

A view from inside the office.

It only took 50 minutes to complete this project from start to finish.  That is so gratifying!

****If I had any lessons to learn about silver leafing, I would spray the adhesive and give it about 20 seconds before placing the silver leaf sheet over the area.