Painting Over Frosted Glass & Laminate Wardrobes..Bohemian Style. DIY..

The 'before' doors may look good in the photo but they were a shiny laminate artificial looking wood and not real wooden doors.  And the 'after' might not be everyone's cup of tea but my daughter wanted to get rid of the plastic look of these closet doors so we decided painting them was the way to go.

 She wanted something completely different so I went for a Bohemian style look and with that idea in mind I decided to go for something a little more colourful. Well very colourful!!  OK possibly a bit wild but she loves it .. Yay! (Plus we just did not like that see through frosted glass effect either. It ugly!)

On doing some research I decided I'd really like the verdigris or something like that aged greenish copper look,  so next stop the art shop to get my paints. I also picked up a stencil there and some lovely gold paint which gave me the perfect antique gold look I wanted to add a little something extra.I didn't want my stencil design to be too uniform so I played around with it a little on some sheets of paper first flipping it on it's side and placing it mirror image etc. to look at my alternatives. I ended up liking this configuration  'below' the best.

I decided to go with a gold stencil over the top of the verdigris colour on all the frosted glass panels using an antique 'gold look' paint.

I thought about changing those handles too but I think I got away with just painting them. I was hoping to make them look as if they were aged copper (and not stainless steel)

Below -  The door handles were painted and gilded and given two coats of wax for durability.. 

I've since painted the wooden floor and pine door white in this room and it's coming together so nicely. Just waiting on a stencil I ordered to finish off the floor, some new curtains and it's done..

If you would like more details on this DIY and the paints I used read on.

There are numerous different ways on the internet on how to achieve a verdigris colour so do google and have a look which is what I did and this is the technique I came up with eventually to get the result that I wanted.

Here is a photo and list of supplies needed.

Supply List:

-Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Graphite For Base Coat.-Dulux Sea Urchin (not in above photo) (or any very dark green paint) to lay down the first coat of green.

-Folk Art Grotto Ultra Matte Acrylic Paint 'Plaid'.  I got this from Art & Craft Co, Ennis.€9.95 

Here's a link to their  Facebook page for more info.

-Coeruleum Blue, Acrylic Paint also from the Art & Craft Co. Ennis.€5.50/75ml.

-Prussian Blue, Acrylic Paint from Art & Craft Co. Ennis. €5.50/75ml.

-Any Clear Wax from Woodies or any hardware shops.-Medium brush & rags to apply layers of paint.

-A small brush to apply the gold (I used an eye shadow brush- it's all I could find at home and it worked just fine).

-Large brush to apply wax and rags to buff & polish. And that's all you need. Now for the step by step guide.

First off I painted all the wardrobe doors including the frosted glass with the Graphite black chalk paint.  

Any chalk paint would probably do but I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Graphite  (this also acts as a primer). I don't have a photo of when they were painted with the black, I was on roll and well onto the green before I realised I forgot to take a photo but really you just paint the whole thing black first and then go over it with a dark green colour and on from there.. 

 

I let the graphite colour dry completely before I applied my dark green colour. I used a small tin of 'Dulux Sea Urchin Green' colour from Woodies  (but you can use any dark green paint you have on hand here as it's only another base coat to build on.

I only applied the green in patches at first and while the green was still damp I started to apply tiny amounts of the Coeruleum Blue with a medium sized soft bristle brush and just rubbed it into the damp 'sea urchin green colour' to get that blue/green look of aged copper.

I just happened to have a tin of 'sea urchin colour from another project but any  dark hunter or forest green colour paint would do.

At one point I felt it had turned out way to blue so this is where I added the Green Chalk Paint in Plaid. I worked again in patches with the same brush just working a tiny amount of green paint in all over in patches here and there and really rubbing it in.

Now comes the Prussian Blue Paint. I used very little of this but it made a big difference. Using the same brush I applied the Prussian Blue with light feathery strokes. Just tiny amounts on my brush was all I needed to add an extra shadow of colour.

From here I just eyed it every few minute to see if I needed to add more Coeruleum blue here or chalk green there or a little more Prussian and so on and I kept doing that until I was happy with it.

 At first I wasn't. It was coming out a bit too dark. So long story short I mixed a tiny amount of white paint |(I used some white chalk paint left over from painting our kitchen) with the green chalk paint and with a damp lint free rag I started rubbing this in very lightly and thinly in circular motions in patches all over the wardrobes. And I liked it! It kind of added highlights.

I left it every now and then after applying each coat of paint just so I could come back and get a fresh perspective on the overall colour. Sometimes I was very happy with the result. Sometimes not. No worries though as nothing is sealed yet and all these layers are a good thing especially for the aged look. I just added more white to green if I wanted a lighter cloudier look. Or more blue to areas that were too light etc,
When I was happy with the colour I waxed the whole thing for sheen and protection. I used  Clear Bees Wax and a thick waxing brush, Again I think any clear wax will do but I had this on hand and it worked out just fine.  

One Thing To Note!
I tried out a couple of different gold paints and this was by far the best one (below) for sheen and texture and it had that beautiful antiqued gold look to it. I used this for the stenciling part.

Gilding Wax

And that's it!

Hope this helps you but if you have any questions just ask and I'll gladly answer them for you.

 Happy Painting..

Cheers.🖌🖌🖌 Marie😊