Faux Stone Fireplace Mantel

This fireplace mantel was made out of some kind of plaster. It already had the texture, so it made it much easier to work with.

I started by taping and papering to protect the walls around the fireplace mantel. I had to sand because the surface was painted with a gloss finish paint. I then primed and basecoated with a light cream color.

The glazing process is what really brought out the stone surface texture. The darker glaze settled in the nooks, holes and cracks.

I think it came out pretty nice, what do you think?

Faux Metallic Rag Washed Panels

This was a fun job. I had to do 6 panels in a client's formal living room. I created several sample options for them and they decided on the darker base color with a lighter glaze color rag washed on top. They also wanted to add some metallic highlights into the finish, so I topped it off with some gold metallic glaze.

I am extremely particular when it comes to preparing my workspace for a decorative paint finish. I always tape everything off and also add paper in case the paint spatters when I am applying the glaze. You will be surprised how much smoother things go when you don't have a lot of clean up or touch ups to do at the end of a job.

In this picture, you will see that I started to wash in the cream / beige glaze color into the base. It doesn't look like much now, but the outcome was really beautiful.

See what I mean? It was lookin' good! And my absolute FAVORITE part of a faux finishing job is taking the tape off and seeing the finish as a whole.

This is the finished space. The panels have both layers of glaze (light glaze and metallic glaze top coat) applied in layers. I base coated the panels on Day 1. I did the first layer of light colored glaze on Day 2. And on Day 3 I did the final layer of metallic glaze with the same rag wash technique.

The clients seemed very pleased with the outcome. It was difficult to see the brightness from the metallic because my last day on the job was a bit dark and dreary. But once the light hits those panels - they are sure to reflect lots of gorgeous light.