Creating a new Metallic Finish on Accessories

Found a new product I love!!!  I discovered it as a great solution to re-do some home owner's things for a recent make-over that required silvered finished accessories.  They had several gold finished and wrought iron pieces in the room.   I wanted to re-use the pieces but the finishes didn't match the new decor, so I needed a way to transform them.  This is where Rub'n Buff came in. 

The product is a wax rub on gel.  You can use it on frames, antiques, crafts and home decor.  Works best on porous surfaces.  It's a blend of wax, metallic powders and pigments that creates a metallic finish.  You only need a tiny bit and it has amazing results!  It comes in three finishes - Silver Leaf (the one I used), a Gold finish and one called Patina.   I bought the gel at Michael's, it was about $4.

The biggest item I re-did was the mirror to go over the desk area.  Here's the mirror before, the inset was a dark red and the outside trim was a high sheen gold.

Up close the look of the mirror before.

I put down a plastic tarp and then used blue painter's tape to tape off the inside of the mirror itself to not get any gel on the actual mirror.

I gently sanded the frame with a light sandpaper block to rough up the finish a little to create a porous base.  Yikes!! is all I can say - as I did this it made the inner part with the dark red become a bright red!  In the end, it didn't matter as the gel covered it all - WHEW!

Use the gel in a well ventilated area - it does have a bit of a smell.  Use gloves when applying the finish.  I put a teeny dab on my finger tip.  It's better to start off light and then have to apply additional coats if you need to.  I gently rubbed it across the top of the relief.  I didn't want it to be totally covered, but rather wanted the metallic finish only on the raised part of the frame.

Here's how it looked after I just did the center part.  I thought the gold had too high of a sheen so I decided to do it as well.

Here's how it looked with the whole frame done.  I went over all of it with a soft cloth just to wipe off any excess.

Here's the finished mirror.

Here's the finished mirror in the room.  It looks perfect and only cost a few dollars!

I also used the gel on a clock that used to be bronze.

And on an armoire that I re-finished.  I didn't want to replace the hinges as it might have damaged the wood, so the gel was a perfect solution.

I'll be using the product again on some things around my own house and future clients projects.  By the way after these projects and a few others, I still only used about 1/4 of the tube!!