Simply, I love silver leaf furniture. Perhaps one of the reasons I chose my blog’s name was my admiration for my silver leaf project. After I finished it, the dresser looked so expensive that I thought man I do have champagne taste 🙂
Silver leafing is easy but you should have a little bit of patience and a vacuum cleaner 🙂 yes yes you heard me a vacuum cleaner because it will get messy, like really messy,and don’t try to apply it outdoor ( like some blogs suggested) because it is so delicate that your own breath can make a big mess so what about the wind, so I found the best place to apply it is in my workshop garage.
So here’s how I did it:
1- I applied the oil base size with my dollar store cheap brush, waited for about 45 minutes until the size will get tacky, The proper tack is when the size does not stick to the knuckle and you hear a slight “tick” when the knuckle is pulled away. ( you will know what I’m talking about when you try it).
2-Then you apply the silver leaf by holding it with the wax paper ( the silver leafs come in between of 2 sheets of wax paper so use those papers to hold the silver leaf) so don’t use your own hands because the silver leaf will stick to your hands and not to the desk.
3- Place the next sheet slightly on top of the previous one, when you overlap the sheets you will get fewer gaps and cracks in between when you burnish them at the end.
4- When you finish applying all the sheets to the desk, use a soft brush to burnish all the silver leaf, and make sure to be gentle on the seams or you will get lots of cracks.
5- Seal it, some blogs says you do not need to seal it but based on my mom experience the color will change after a while if you don’t seal it ( she lives on the beach so it might be weather thing I’m not sure) but I didn’t want to risk it so I sealed it with a transparent sealer ( some sealers has a yellow or red color).
P.S: When you seal it, the checkboard pattern will disappear.
6-Thanks to centsational girl I knew this tip, you can fill in the cracks with Rub’Buff silver color it works like magic but of course, this should happen before you apply the sealer.
7- Don’t ever think you will get a perfectly smooth surface, no matter how hard you try you will have a textured surface or a few cracks so you better like the mirrored antique style.The perfect silver leaf style is not to be perfect 😉
Before:
After:
I’ll tell you a secret, this was my first silver leaf project ever and it wasn’t that easy. I applied 3 times the silver leaf over that dresser.The first time, I didn’t like the way it turned out to be it was like a chessboard. The second time, I applied another layer of silver leaf over the first one so I can break that chessboard pattern but it was a very bad idea, it was all wrinkly so I used my sander and removed both layers. Third and it was the final one and it turned out prettay ( or I gave up and I convinced my self it is pretty lol)
For the small details and curves of the drawers for some reason silver leaf didn’t stick so I applied Rub N Buff, like Kate from Centsationalgirl did
Hope you like my dresser cause I’m in love with it 🙂
