New Life for Old Ceramic Christmas Decor #HomeForChristmas
When you have a special piece of decor that's outlived its stylishness, what do you do? Give it a makeover! You can use chalk paint to paint right over glazed ceramics, giving them an elegant natural look.
My mother-in-law gave this Santa and Reindeer candle holder set to my husband and me on our first Christmas together and has been a family treasure ever since. But our styles and color choices have changed a lot since then, and we were struggling to find a place for our meaningful piece of treasured decor. With a quick update from Chalk Paint and Gold Liquid Leaf, now it fits our style again and we can proudly display it!
You may have your own ceramic figurine that you want to makeover but if not, you can find all sorts of ceramics in thrift stores that are just begging for a makeover. Try to look past their kitschy colors and clashing finishes and imagine what the shape might have looked like before it was glazed or painted. That will help you decide which are the right pieces to try this treatment.
Use your larger brush to cover the ceramics with a light coat of chalk paint. If you apply the paint too heavily, you may end up with a crackled finish. (A cool paint technique, but not really what we're going for here.) The soft brush helps to make sure you get into every nook and cranny.
This guy gave me quite the attitude while he was getting his paint bath. He was not happy.
With only one coat, the chalk paint still looks pretty choppy. Once the first coat is completely dry, add another light layer of chalk paint. With two coats, your piece will have a nice matte finish, just like an unglazed ceramic piece.
Once the chalk paint is dry, add gold touches wherever you like with the small brush. I think less is more, so I just added a few accents, but of course you can add as many as you like.
Liquid Leaf is my favorite paint for getting a gold finish that actually looks like real gold.
Now Santa and his reindeer have their place back at our table with our neutral colors, and look elegant and refined once more.
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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3 of 9 comments
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Gorgeousness
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How awesome are those? Thanks for the hint!!!
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