Updated: Jul 21, 2023
This Shimmery Bedside Table has found its forever home in my guest room! Sometimes the tiniest projects bring the most joy!
It is the perfect size to fill the tiny space between the bed and the wall. Our king-size headboard and footboard remain in their natural wood color, so I chose to give the bedside table a little moody vibe!
In all honesty, the bedside table will hardly be noticed in the corner. This secretly gave me added confidence to "play" with this finish. I was completely free of pressure! Truthfully, I am thrilled with the outcome and look forward to finishing this on a much larger scale very soon!
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While thoroughly washing with White Lighting, it became apparent that this piece would require either a primer to block wood tannins OR paint with deep dark colors to avoid bleed-through being seen. I went with deep dark colors (that was my plan anyway)!
I knew I wanted to use metal leafing in both gold and copper.
So I applied metal leaf adhesive in a free-form shape and let it sit for 30 minutes to come to tack.
While the tack was doing its magic, I mixed a texture additive (Sea Spray) into the color Malachite clay paint and applied this using a paint spatula to the top surface of the table (see the photo for a closeup of the AMAZING texture this made). The original wood was quite beaten up, and I chose to hide this with a textured surface.
This table will receive a lot of wear and tear in our guest room, and I wanted a surface that could withstand the wear and tear. Once the wood was fully covered, I allowed this textured paint time to set as I planned to come back and knock back some of the peaks of the texture.
I then returned to the leaf adhesive, which was now ready for leafing application.
This process is so easy, and I REALLY enjoy it!
Just lay the sheets on all sticky areas, then use a soft brush to knock away all excess leafing!
That's it!
And the result is always gorgeous!
Now it's time to bring the paint to the leafed areas and marry them!
Malachite and Galaxy are at the base of all the legs. I loved the blend of the gorgeous deep green with black.
As I worked my way up the leg, I added Cerulean Blue, blending nicely into the lower Malachite.
Moving closer to the gold and copper leaf, I began to bring in Daffodil next to the gold leaf and Marigold next to the copper leaf. Both of these colors blended beautifully and quite organically into the tone of the leafed areas.
I introduced a bit of Elderberry (purplish plum) and Bougainvillea (bold pink) to the tops of the legs, blending into the orange and yellow of the drawer front.
Wowza!
I repeated this process on all sides of the table.
When all the first coats were dry, I went back over all the painted areas with a second coat to intensify the color and strengthen the moody vibe!
I finally returned my attention to the top surface, but I had waited a little too long to be able to knock back peaks easily.
Undeterred, I used my paint spatula to drag some of the peaks down anyway, and, to be honest, I really like the look.
I had used Malachite as an undercoat but fully intended the top surface to be in the Marigold and Bougainvillea tones only, with slight peaks of Malachite visible.
In full transparency, I just began blending colors one after the other until I finally got this look.
It is VERY moody with a gorgeous center glow!
THIS is the part that I can't wait to do on a large scale very soon!
I enhanced the edges and corners of the table, as well as the raised texture on the top surface, by dry brushing in opposing colors.
What I mean by this is if an area was green, I dry-brushed it with pink. If an area was pink, I dry-brushed it with green.
My goal was to marry all colors somehow, and this dry brushing is an effortless way to do this with clay paint.
My final enhancement was to dry brush with gold gilding wax, of course!
I sealed the entire piece (because clay paint must be sealed) with Terra Seal.
It's easy to use and dries quickly.
I did NOT use this over the metal-leafed areas. I sealed these areas with metal leaf sealer using a craft brush.
Once fully dry, I laid down a single coat of Gator Hide on the top surface only.
I did this for extra protection since it will be used as a bedside table, and I have no doubt it will see the bottom of many cups of water and coffee in the near future!
And that's it!
The making of my little side table for my guest room is complete and looks as moody as ever next to the teal velvet bedspread and beneath the emerald green Lucite vintage lamp!
I encourage you to find something to "play" (aka paint) on that carries NO pressure or expectations and see what happens!
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