An Old World Texture Gives These Speaker Stands a New Purpose

2 Materials
$30
2 Hours
Medium

My husband had ditched these hand made speaker stands that he originally made for his recording studio. "Ditched" means they ended up in my pile of "Oh don't throw those out, I can do something with those"! Ya know what I'm sayin'?

Speaker stands - dusty, ready for a makeover.

My brilliant idea: "These would make great plant stands", I thought to myself ...

So I bought a couple of cheap, plastic pots that would fit nicely, and thought of how I could change these up a bit too.

Introducing the new product that would be my magical makeover powder: FRESCO, by Fusion Mineral Paint. I had heard great things about Fresco and the lovely textured, crackled and old world look you could get from mixing it with paint, so here was my chance to experiment a little!

I mixed one part FRESCO to two parts paint (I used Fusion Mineral Paint - Soapstone), combining with a mini whisk until it forms a lumpy gloppy paste. Lumps are good, you don't want to mix them in as they form the "texture".

I used an ordinary paint brush to apply to both the stands and the pots in a stippling motion, creating brush strokes as I went, in random directions.

Here is the pot featuring a lovely texture ...

In many areas, I felt that I had mixed the gray a little too much as the texture wasn't as prominent as I had hoped, so I decided to mix up more FRESCO with a white Fusion Mineral Colour - Limestone. This time, I mixed it less enthusiastically, and there were some awesome lumpy bits - yay.

Note: you do NOT need to use Fresco in more than the first layer of paint, most times you will only use Fresco for your first layer.

Apply in a stippling motion, creating texture

After several minutes and before your Fresco/Paint mixture dries, you can run your brush over the texture, knocking down any high points of the mix, creating further texture when you drag the brush.

I added the use of a hairdryer to create some awesome crackle on the stands. You can get the same effect by leaving your project in the hot sun outside.

Check out these amazing crackles and texture:

The final paint layer on the pots, I used Fusion Mineral Paint - Upper Canada Green and painted all over the pot using a clean brush and NO Fresco added.

For the stands, I used a final layer of Fusion's Michael Penney designer colour - Pebble (a perfect griege, soft gray with tan undertones).

Layering colours and tones is fun!

In my final step, after paint had dried, using a wet/dry sanding glove (Sandi Hands Sanding Glove), I wet sanded both the pots and the stands, bringing back the top layer of paint to reveal the underneath layers of textured colour.

You can sand back further in some areas, and less in others, it's all a matter of feel and going with what you think looks great.

Wet Sanding with SandiHands glove.

After wet sanding, I wiped the area to remove the excess sanded matter, and the lovely textured finish is revealed. Layers of aged, weathered and worn pot!

After wet sanding,revealing layers.

The stands after sanding, reveal the white peaks of the Fresco mixture under the gray Pebble colour, with extra sanding on the edges revealing some dark gray and wood.

For the full post, head over to my blog where you'll see all the final pics of this stunning transformation. From drab speaker stands to beautiful old aged, weathered & cracked plant stands. And those pots! Faux terracotta plastic to rustic faux concrete, moss covered, aged patina.

I look forward to showing you how I did this project on Hometalk's Facebook Live ... real soon!

Suggested materials:
  • Fresco   (www.irestorestuff.com)
  • Fusion Mineral Paint   (www.irestorestuff.com)
I Restore Stuff
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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  3 questions
  • Dl.5660408 Dl.5660408 on Sep 12, 2016
    What is "fresco"? It certainly made your pots look amazing
  • Louis White Louis White on Sep 13, 2016
    You use a product called FRESCO. What is that? I know Fresco is painting on wet plaster but what is the FRESCO you used in the paint mixture?
  • Giselle Giselle on Sep 13, 2016
    Where can you purchase Fresco?
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