Easiest Way Ever to Fake Marble

by TLC Vintage Collection

$75

Easy

So someone give you eight 8-foot Doric-style columns that are shiny white and beat up. What's a person to do? Age them easily to look like mottled marble. Here's how!

easiest way ever to fake marble, chalk paint, painting

The finished look. It's easy to achieve with Annie Sloan's new larger form roller, three colors of Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan and some of her Clear Soft Wax.

When a pickup pulled up to our shop and we were offered eight of these columns, we were loving it. But they were pretty stark dotted around the 1900 square foot space. Our customers immediately loved them, but said we needed to do something to make them look more realistic.

So TLC Vintage Collection took them apart -- removing the plastic toppers and bases, and cleaned everything well with dishsoap and water and removed any lingering adhesive from wallpaper trim that had been on them at one time. These heavy fiberglass pillers were salvaged from a former salon space and given to us!

Get a small roller tray, and add three pools of Chalk Paint®. To the left is Paris Grey, center Old White, right French Linen. Add more paint as needed trying to keep the pools segregated. Roll off excess on the tray's slanted area.

Work your roller over the area you want covered -- in our case a round surface. But this also works on walls, table tops, or anything you want to give a marble look. If the edge of the roller leaves to sharp a line, just gently roll over it again to soften the look. One coat was all that was necessary. Once dry, we waxed as we usually do with Annie Sloan Clear Soft Wax, removing the excess as we went along. We did the toppers and bases similarly but used a large stencil brush to apply the three colors at one time. Then we used silicone grey caulk to seal the column to the base.

Originally, I thought we might sell these, but our customers tell us they tie the shop together beautifully! So we will enjoy them and use them at some of our events as part of our booth setup. Enjoy! Cost and time depends on the size of your area. We are showing minimum price for using the smallest amount of material one can buy in these colors and equipment.