Painted Brass with Patina Technique

Don’t let a dated brass thrift store find scare you away!  Try this fun painted brass with patina technique to revive even the worst of home decor items.

Do you recall our recent bathroom makeover reveal?  I finished this space up like I do most spaces, with some good ol’ thrift store finds.

This wall shelf was one of my discovered goodies, and the perfect size to prop some folded washcloths and a place to hang towels in our small bathroom.

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But I almost didn’t see it, because it was sitting on the shelves of the thrift store, buried under other dated brass items.

Now, I know that Brass is on a big comeback, whether I like it or not.  But the fact of the matter is that brass isn’t usually what my eye gravitates to, so I just about missed this darling shelf with hooks.

I want to show you the super simple painting technique I used to give this brass shelf a white face lift and loads of beloved patina.

I was at a blogging conference earlier this year, and Folkart was there with a booth handing out samples of their new line of paints, and their most popular.  I knew I wanted to give them a try when I got home, and this painted shelf seemed like the perfect opportunity to play around.

*This is not a sponsored post.  Just sharing my discoveries with you!  I have provided my affiliate links for the products mentioned, for your convenience.  

The Pickling Wash paints work great on wood to give it an aged feel, but I have yet to try those myself.  Let me know if you have, and the results you found!

But I already knew I loved the Folkart Milk paint (I’ve used it on many projects) but I wondered how it would work on this brass shelf layered above the Folkart brushed metal paint.

So I began to layer on the brushed metal paint, and was very pleased with how it adhered to the brass.  It acted much like a primer would, and gave me a nice dry abrasive surface to layer the milk paint on.

After a couple of coats of brushed metal, the gold/orange tones of the brass were practically diminished and it was ready for the milk paint.

It took 2 coats of the white milk paint to almost cover it.  After completely dry, I took some sandpaper and lightly sanded some of the milk paint off to expose the silver metal underneath.

After this experiment was said and done, I think the brushed metal paint was key to getting the brass undertones to take on a more blueish hue, rather than gold.

I used the rest of the brushed metal paint on my wood framed $5.00 thrift store mirror.  Now that’s a bottle of paint that packs a punch!

I’d love to hear about some of your favorite paint techniques you’ve tried and had work out!  Or do you have any thrift store treasures you’ve revived lately?

There is pretty much nothing a can of white paint can’t fix, am I right?