DIY Time

I decided I needed a coat rack that my younger children could reach. My tight budget inspired me to get busy with some DIY action and this is what I came up with.

The mirror was something I originally found more than a year ago at a second hand shop for $5. It's got some lovely intricate over the top design touches to it that I love. I wanted to see how well I could work with my limited budget to make something that would fit. I found the foundation piece for this coat rack at good ol' G&T's for 1.99 gbp.

I removed all the hardware with a philips head screwdriver and put it all together in a bag for safe keeping. Nothing's worse than losing your hardware after working hard on a DIY project. This wasn't a high end piece of wood so it needed a good scrubbing down with a 60 grit piece of sandpaper followed by a 100 grit piece of sandpaper. Once I reached an acceptable smoothness, I wiped it down with a dry microfiber cloth to remove any residual sawdust. The details in the mirror frame determined what paints I would use.

I used acrylics paints including a gold one. You could go higher end and use a liquid leaf product which has actual gold pigment suspended in it, but remember, this was supposed to be budget friendly for me. Each of these very large tubes of acrylic paint were less than 3 gbp each.

{Black, Burnt Umber, and Pale Gold}

I used a piece of aluminum foil as a makeshift paint palette.

I started off trying to make the majority of the body of the coat rack gold but the gold was coming out much more red based/orange looking than the mirror. It turned out that was the perfect base for what I ended up doing though. I painted over the pale gold color with a black wash. I simply used a small amount of black paint and loaded my brush up with water. I mixed the water with the black paint until I had the desired thinness and painted it lightly over the gold color. It turned out really lovely simply because the black really grabbed onto the natural patterns in the wood and emphasized them. I then painted over that with the burnt umber and the pattern came a bit more alive with some of the red and black tints showing through just like on the mirror's details. My finishing coat was a thin gold wash over it all.

It really gave the piece a nice golden sheen in the light. Once everything was nice and dry I reattached the hardware and mounted it onto the wall. My best tips to pass on would be:

 ~Remember and let each coat dry thoroughly before moving on to your next step.

~Use a brush intended for acrylic paints. Remove any loose bristles. Nothing can ruin or annoy a paint job or painter quicker. 

~Secure any removed harder in a safe location for reattachment later. 

~Never be afraid to try something just because you never have before. That's what google's for. ;)

And voilà, you have an affordable matching coat hanger for less than 9£.

Happy DIY'ing everyone!

xoxo