August 22, 2011

Faux Finishing Brings New Life to Old Pieces

Lately I've been looking around my house and gathering different items that I could finish in the Giani Granite.  Over the weekend I located a couple more pieces.

One is in process, a picture frame that houses a picture of my husband taken about 11 years ago when we went on a road trip to Maryland.  The frame was simple, with rounded corners, but it has been carried around to so many different apartments over the past 11 years that it was really starting to get banged up.

So, of course, because I will reuse as much as possible, it has been primed and awaiting a fine granite finish which should be completed by tomorrow (including top coats!)

The other piece...

You see the chip up there ^ ?  That's a sample of African Ivory granite.  The kit I currently have is Sicilian Sand, the lightest of the Giani Granite options, but I wanted to do something different than the granite desktop that I shared with you before.

So I started doing my research and discovered a few websites that provide photos and descriptions of various colors of stock granite.  Perfect!  When I saw the African Ivory I knew that's what I wanted to use as my inspiration.  Lo and behold here's what I got...


Gorgeous right?  I experimented with a little bit of veining and some speckling to get a totally different look.  Also the box had an etchable plate on the top that was beat up so I covered it with copper and it shines like new with the Giani topcoat protecting the final finish!

Giani isn't just for kitchen counters, that's what I discovered through this project.  I'm considering creating a whole bunch of different home decor items and plunking them into my shop at Etsy.  Why?

Because sometimes doing an entire kitchen, bath, bar top, etc. is out of reach even though it isn't nearly as expensive as real granite -- I'm a prime example, because we live in an apartment I'm not able to coat my countertops (though I'd love to!).  This makes faux accessible; on a small scale item it can be given as gifts or kept for yourself.

And just think how much less expensive it will be to ship because its so much lighter than real stone!

Details to follow on my own items but don't hesitate to get in touch with me if you have an item that you'd like to extend the life of and want me to finish in granite (or another finish option).  I've shipped back and forth in the past or if you're in the Phoenix area I could pick it up directly.

Let's talk about your favorite granite colors today!

2 comments:

Judi FitzPatrick said...

The box looks great, can't wait to see the frame.

Peace, Judi

Unknown said...

Thanks so much :-) It was a good test to see how to do inner corners. Not too difficult, frame is almost done, need to add some veining & do the back tomorrow!