Foil Bombay Chest

So I have a wonderful friend who suffers from the same ailment I have…

furniture addiction.

Sometimes hers gets so bad that she feels a little overwhelmed (I don’t know WHAT that might be like), and she has to dispose of some furniture or be buried in it (seriously, not WITH it…IN it).

I try to help her out by transferring some of her stash from her house to mine.  Aren’t I a good friend??

Here is a piece that came home with me a few weeks ago.  And this is exactly what it looked like.

My friend was in the midst of trying to rescue it from a bad paint job, but it was a mess!  The paint was peeling off in places, and sticking like glue to others.  It was going to me a major pain in the pantooka to either sand or strip all that paint off—and it just didn’t appeal to me in the least!

So I went with “Plan B.”

Last summer I experimented with a foil finish for a couple of thrift-store nightstands—using real live aluminum foil!

You can read more about it here:  Bling for the Bedroom.

I had been thinking about it because, for whatever reason, this little project has been extremely popular on Pinterest lately!  It seemed like a perfect solution to covering up the bad finish without having to remove it all.

If you’re interested in more of a step-by-step description of the process, see the nightstand project, or check out the Ivy Cottage’s tutorial on covering her wall with foil (Amanda was my original inspiration).

Here I am slathering wallpaper paste and foil on this Bombay chest.  You have to press down firmly, doing your best to remove all the air pockets.  It’s tricky on details trim.

And a word of warning…tin-foil-cuts are every bit as painful as paper-cuts, and they happen a LOT more often!

Oooh…nearing the finish line!

Once the foil is on and everything is dry, scrub off the paste residue with a damp cloth.  There will be a lot of it.  Then use a drop or two of acrylic paint (straight up, not diluted) to glaze the surface.

I chose not to try to cover the feet with foil.  They are painted with Rustoleum Metallic Aluminum paint, and glazed with black in the hopes that they will “blend in” with the rest of the piece.

Ready for some beauty shots? 

It really shines in the sun!

The whole piece is covered with 3 coats of polyacrylic.  It gives a nice, smooth finish—but beware, it will always be a little fragile!

The knobs came from Hobby Lobby. 

So there you have it!  I think this would be a super fun piece for an entry, don’t you?