I had the pleasure of doing a little thrift/antique shopping with my daughter over the past few days, and I have to say "I'm so glad she has inherited my same love of finding thrifty treasures and thrifty items to re-love." The thrill of the hunt has surely been passed down to her honestly.
We were even competitive with who saw it first, or more so she was perhaps, by trying to stay ahead of me while we were hunting. We have some similar tastes, so there were things I saw first, and things she saw first, and got the jump-on. I handed over a cute little "Welcome" sign to her, that I saw first, 'cause I knew she really liked it, too!
One of the items spotted was a large Metal Letter 'M' marked 50% off, and I almost loved everything about it. That is part of the appeal with thrift/antique shopping for me, if I don't completely love something I am always thinking of how I can make it an item I will love by changing it, usually and most often by using paint! My wheels were spinning with ideas, so, with it being only six-bucks I decided I would get it and plan to make it something I loved.
There was a chalk-y green colored top-coat with a metallic-gold color shining through from underneath. I wasn't overly fond of the look so I got an idea the next day while thinking of transforming it by re-painting it, but, instead of painting it, how about removing the paint or un-painting it?!
Well, that is what I should call it because I decided to use a little bit of acetone nail polish remover on a paper towel and lightly rub off some of the green top coat it had on it. (The picture above is a view from the back, since I started to remove the paint on the front prior to taking a "before" photo. The color shown is what the front originally looked like.)
I continued using small amounts of the acetone dabbed onto paper towels. The more I removed of the top green color the more I liked the look. The metallic gold showed up much more and as I rubbed off more of the paint I got a bronze tone in some areas, and also with pressing harder in places I got down to the original black.
The final look was even better than I had imagined, and the "M" now has a lovely color combination of gold, bronze, black, and just a hint of the green, with a sort of patina look to it! The gold really shines through!
It looks perfect next to my beautiful gold mirror. It's truly one of those "you have to see it in person" to see the real beauty of it! By removing some of the paint on part of it, I made it all the better and now it fits in nicely with my decor, and it's something that I really do love!
