DIY Restoration Hardware Faux Zinc Finish

So, I love to paint and refinish furniture. It's hobby of mine and the jury's still out on how good I am at it. But I like to play around and try new things. (Oh, and I have recently started doing it on the side - go check it out!!)

One finish I have been dying to try is a metallic faux zinc finish. After doing some research, it seemed like there was 1000 tutorials on the web and every one of them was different. I kind of picked two and then did my own thing for various reasons. One was Freckled Laundry, and hers was awesome but I didn't follow all her steps, but I did take her idea of "ragging" on the paint.

The other, ChiChi Studio I found because I wanted to search ways of doing it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. And it turns out she is a local gal who shops for ASCP at the same place. Small world!

Basically I just did it my own way, using some pointers. I wanted mine darker than Freckled Laundry, but more shiny and metallic that ChiChi. 

Here was my inspiration:

A zinc finish Restoration Hardware Piece. I love the shine and color, but I wanted darker hardware to make it look more industrial. 

So, here is what I did. 

Supplies:

Paint Brushes (duh)
DecoArt Metallic Finish in Silver and Black
White Paint (any)
Annie Sloan Graphite Chalk Paint
Gray Paint (any)
Glaze
Polyurethane
Rags (or old tshirts)
Gripper Primer

Wow, that sounds like alot of crap, but I had alot of it on hand. The only thing I purchased was the metallic paint. And again, I just mixed stuff because I had it. You don't have to.

First, the before. It was an Ethan Allen buffet I got for a steal off of Craigslist. So it had good bones and was very solid.

And the after:

1. First, I primed it with my Gripper Primer. You don't have to do that if you use Annie Sloan, but I wanted a really smooth surface, and plus I didn't use 100% ASCP as the base (WHAT???? You MIXED Annie Sloan with latex paint?? Can you DO THAT???) Yes, I did, and I broke the rules. Shame on me. But, hey, it worked. And I wanted it lighter than Graphite, so I mixed in a little bit of gray. Thats why its fun!

Primed and ready to go!

2. Next I put on one light coat of ASCP in Graphite, mixed with a little bit of gray. Again, no need for good coverage here, I just wanted a dark base. 

You can see the coverage isn't great, but thats ok.

3. Mix three piles of metallic sheens (this idea I got from Freckled Laundry). I say do this, but I only used the darker of the two. The lightest I used with a glaze at the end - here is where I went different than what she did. She used all three, I used two, then the lighter as a glaze. 

I used the original AS paint and mixed in the black metallic to it (left) then the black metallic with silver glaze (top right) them silver metallic with white paint (bottom)

4. Rag it on using a tshirt. I have never used this method before, but it was really easy! Almost better than using a paint brush. And because I had a dark base already, it covered beautifully. So, here is where the fun begins. You rag on the darker, then while it's wet throw some of the silver metallic on there as well and rag it on there together. It doesn't have to be perfect, just the mixture of silvers creates than zinc finish. But only work it small sections because it dries quickly

You can see the different shades of silver using this method. 

5. Glaze. I mixed the glaze with the lightest silver metallic (the one mixed with white) then I ragged it on, wiped it off. It left this really pretty silver shimmer. 

6. Poly it up! I used two coats of polyurethane. Again, I know this is a no-no with ASCP, but I only used it as a base, and I wanted the super shine of poly on this piece. 

So, there you go! What do you think?? It seems like a lot of steps, but it went pretty fast. it helps when you're allowed to be messy and not perfect, right?

Used the flash on this one so you could see the shimmer sheen. 

Close up of the silver - replaced knobs with some from Hobby Lobby

Close up of the finish