Thrifted Thursday-Metal Shield Makeover

The other night my husband, our two youngest girls, and I went around to a couple of hobby stores looking for some things he needed. Lucky for me the last store we stopped at was in a strip mall with a Goodwill, and it was a big one. Yay! We all left with something. I ended up with basically a shield. That’s what we are calling it because it looks like something from the movie 300. Seriously, this thing is pretty big.

I knew as soon as I saw it I wanted it but I didn’t give it a good look when I picked it up. When I got home I saw that not only was I going to repaint it but I had to take dents out of it also. The picture doesn’t show how dented it was but you can see how out of whack the left side leg is. My sweet man fixed that for me with some of his metal working skills he learned in auto body and I hammered out the dents with a mallet.

It was quite grungy looking. I used steel wool on it to scruff it up a bit and take off the small amount of rust that was on it.

I started with a base of turquoise-ish chalk paint. I debated on whether or not it needed much else because it looked great with just that on it. I didn’t cover everything because I still wanted some of the darker metal to show through.

But I pushed on and covered it with Parisian grey chalk paint. I was beginning to have some doubt about what I was doing.

I went back to the garage and sanded areas down that I wanted the blue and the old metal to show through.

Once that was done I covered a few of the scratches I didn’t like with the grey paint again. Then I started adding Gold Leaf Rub n’ Buff on all the raised areas.

I applied antiquing wax over the whole piece. When I was done I still wasn’t thrilled with it. The blue didn’t show through enough. I went back with a small brush and added more blue into the grooves, let it dry a tad, and then wiped it with a rag. It definitely helped a lot.

I went back over it with the wax in some spots. Finally I liked what I was seeing.

I had it on this table(pictured above) near the front door but it dwarfed the table too much. I have now moved it into the dining area, in the overhead cut out. It really makes the room feel bigger. I would show more of the room but it is a mess right now. 🙂

 

 

It barely fits up in that cut out. The stand affixed to the back of it isn’t supporting it. It is wedged up there. I’m hoping to make a console table soon and put it on there instead. It deserves to be seen up close.

I love my shield (for lack of a better description of it). Would you have picked this piece up?

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