Copper gilded round Captain's mirror

As you may have guessed by now I have a little obsession with copper, last year I was spraying everything gold now its copper! I have been swooning over some gorgeous copper Captain's mirrors on Pinterest, they are incredibly expensive and mostly in the US so my chances of getting one is very slim. I really love a good bargain and I must say the range of homewares at Kmart at the moment is simply fabulous! I picked up this round mirror for only $19 with the hope of recreating the look of the mirror I had found on Pinterest

Luckily I was able to remove the mirror from the frame, that made the job a whole lot easier.

I taped the strap to protect it from any wayward copper then set about applying the leafing size (glue) to the entire frame. I layered the copper leaf over the outside edges. The front was a little more tricky.....there is a ridge that runs around the frame and its almost impossible to get the copper leaf in between the ridge given my limited gilding skills and lack of patience at this point! The decision was made, it was going to be a distressed copper mirror!

During the gilding process

After the gilding was complete, I lightly sanded random areas to remove a small amount of the copper leaf to distress it. As the copper will tarnish over time its best to seal with a varnish or wax. I opted for a furniture wax as it gave a satin and more realistic brushed copper finish.

I just love it! I have had so many people commenting on how expensive it looks, not bad for around $30!

Jodie xx

Recycled timber hairpin leg table

When we moved into our house one of the odd details from the previous owner was a random timber slab attached to our fireplace. We have no idea why it was placed there, it didn't seem to serve any purpose at all and it certainly didn't look good! The only reason I could come up with was maybe it was there to stop the dining chairs from being damaged by the bricks but that is only a guess as it was too high!



We recently lime washed the fireplace so the timber 'feature' had to go! But WHERE was it going go? It was a stunning piece of timber, maybe a servery? Shelf? Vanity top? It was the wrong size for any of those things. Then it hit me, a console table! I needed something to fill a big wall and a console table would be perfect.

The timber had a thick varnish finish that has yellowed over the last 30 or so years. I stripped the varnish with Citristrip paint stripper and applied carnauba wax finish to keep that natural timber look

The timber after stripping and new finish

I went searching online for some table legs and found Hairpin Legs Australia in Melbourne. I ordered a set of hall table legs and they arrived within a couple of days. I ordered raw steel as I wanted to paint them a colour that would suit the rest of my planned colour scheme. I decided to prime the steel first with an etch primer to help the paint stick and to prevent rusting. The legs were then sprayed a pale aqua blue. All that was left to do was screw the legs to the timber and voila, a new console table!

Here is the end result!

Jodie xx

Copper dipped pottery

I recently bought some pretty ordinary looking 80s pottery pieces, I loved the shapes but they were oh so ugly!! Pottery was very popular in the 70s and 80s so it is available in abundance at op shops today and can be really really cheap. I picked up these pieces for a few dollars each. The thing I love about pottery is that it is mostly handcrafted so you can find many interesting shapes and textures. On the other hand it can also be really drab....So. Much. Brown!

I masked the unglazed section of the small vase so the texture would come through the copper. The pieces were then sprayed white. If you are painting glazed pottery its a good idea to lightly sand first or use a priming product such as ESP to help the paint stick. I then painted the inside of the bowl pale aqua. I was a little heavy handed with the aqua and it ran down the insides slightly, luckily the end result looked more like glaze not spray paint so it was actually a successful mistake! The tall vase was given a very light spray of pale pink on the middle section followed by another very light spray of white to create a dipped ombre effect.


Painted ready for copper leaf

I LOVE copper at the moment, if you follow me on pinterest you will see my obsession! I love the rustic brushed copper effect you get from the leaf as opposed to copper paint.

I am going for an dipped copper look so I didn't have to be really precise when applying the leafing size (aka the glue for gilding). The size is tacky after about 30 minutes then you can start the gilding. Gilding is pretty easy, carefully layer the leaf on the tacky surface and gently smooth the leaf over the surface using a soft paint brush. Once dry remove the excess leaf with a soft brush. There are plenty of You Tube tutorials to check out.

Here are the results, I am so happy with the way they turned out!

Pink ombre goes perfectly with my flamingo painting

A new bowl for my jewellery

While I was at it, I also made candles for craft stall at the school fair

Please don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. 

Jodie xx