Ceiling Medallion as Art
I love the way this ceiling medallion turned art work looks, by Green Willow Pond. Check it out:
Okay…for my first real project post. It’s an easy one. Here are the steps:
1. Find a badly painted foam ceiling medallion at a thrift store.
2. Buy spray paint (Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze – ORB – to be exact.)
3. Point the can at the medallion and spray – about 3 light coats.
4. Make a note next time to buy the really cheap .99 cent plain black paint for the undercoats, then use the more expensive ORB as a top coat. (Told you I can make a penny squeal)
5. Highlight with some gold acrylic paint using a dry brush technique (I’ll “splain” below).
Showing the first coat of paint. Sorry, I forgot to take a before picture. Trust me, it was really ugly. I don’t even think it had paint on it, just some orange looking stuff in the crevices.
Here’s my painting station. It was a windy day, so I had to hold down the plastic with rocks. And the plastic…an old shower curtain liner. We have rusty water which is really hard to clean off shower curtain liners, so I buy the cheap dollar store liners. They last about a month and make great paint backdrops when I’m done with them.
Here she is with the last coat on. Even with the beautiful ORB, she looked a little “flat” to me. Plus I wanted to hang her next to a couple of pictures with gold highlighting on them, so I decided to dry brush some gold highlights on.
The gold paint is Decor brand that I had on hand.
To dry brush, start with a dry brush. Now did that sound intelligent or what? Squirt a little paint out on some newspaper and dip the tip of your brush in it. Brush most of the paint back off on the paper. Then very lightly brush the gold onto the raised areas of the design that you want to highlight. Remember to use very little paint and brush very lightly. You can always add more paint if you need to. Keep a damp paper towel ready so if you do use too much, you can very quickly wipe it back off. If worse comes to worst and it’s already too dry to wipe, all is not lost…just spray another coat of ORB, let it dry, and start over.
Close up of highlighting.
Because this was foam, not wood, I couldn’t just nail in a picture hanger. So I used gorilla glue to glue a piece of ribbon to the back. Hot glue might have worked, but I didn’t trust it.
The finished product…well, almost. I want to find something for the hole in the center of the medallion. I thought a neat vintage pin might work. I’ll keep my eyes peeled.
Cassity Kmetzsch started Remodelaholic after graduating from Utah State University with a degree in Interior Design. Remodelaholic is the place to share her love for knocking out walls, and building everything back up again to not only add function but beauty to her home. Together with her husband Justin, they have remodeled 6 homes and are working on a seventh. She is a mother of four amazing girls. Making a house a home is her favorite hobby.
>I painted ceiling medallions as wall art also, but hadn't thought of highlighting them with metallic paint. I know what I'm gonna be doing tonight!
>Wow! That is foam? I can't believe it! So beautiful! Great job!
>Wow! How do you do it! I would have just walked by a ugly ceiling medallion thinking there was no future! But look at you! Just exquisite!
>I have a couple of old dusty ones in our garage left over from the kitchen's old ceiling fans… great idea!
>I really think I am going to do this! I love it!
>That looks lovely. I'm pretty inspired to paint one in a fun color like aqua, orange, green, or yellow.
Cheers,
Laura
>Stunning!!!
>Love this! What about a small glass knob (or even amber glass) for the center?
>This is great! What a neat idea. I will have to try it out! The gold complimented the ORB very well!
>How pretty! I want to do this now! I think one over my entertainment center would be pretty.
>The thrift store just had a medallion….I passed it up….now I am kicking myself. UGH! This would have been perfect in my living room!!!!
>wow…wow…Wow! I love this idea..very beautiful..thanks for sharing it..
>This turned out great!! I love it. Looks very expensive! Love & blessings from NC!
>I agree a vintage pin would be a good fit for the hole. You can get bargains on e-bay. Just know that some vintage pins are worth a lot of $$- I have a fun collection of them I'm working on a display for.
>Thanks for posting my medallion Cassity! It is one of my favorite transformations so far…and so easy!
Wow, I really love that. I was thinking of doing the exact same thing, but can’t find some inexpensive medallions. Thanks for sharing.
I love this! But for the first step did you spray with black and then go over with lights coats using the oil rubbed bronze?