Another 2012 Decorating Trend - Metallic Paints!

Furniture and Accessories in Metallica Paint

This House and Home blog declared link to site warm metals as a major decorating trend.  Another source shouts out the trend as follows - link

It’s “in.” It’s “cool.” It’s “hot.” It’s metallic paints. Metal mania, you might call it. In corporate offices, restaurants, clubs, resorts, casinos, retail spaces and private homes, metallic paints are the latest trend.

“It’s very cutting edge and new. Metallic paints are fun, zippy and millennium-looking,” reports Tara Hill, senior project designer with HOK Architects in Atlanta. For example, she says, “Many dot-coms use their interiors as recruiting tools, and metallic paints give the spaces a cool, youthful, energetic feeling.”  

Various metal-like paints are showing up in many of the homes featured in websites, magazines and show-homes.  The paints can be on the walls as described in this Do-It-Yourself segment Link to Tutorial of How to Apply Metallic Paints or furniture or in furniture and accessories.

Color Chart - link to Krylon Site

The colors are mostly subdued, bright brass is still a no-no but a more subtle bronzed version can be seen everywhere.  I have used the spray paints to refurbish legs on chairs and have loved the results.  My local hardware store carries two brands - Krylon and Rustoleum.  I have used the latter which comes is in either a satin or bright finish - the satin is the right level of brightness for me!

The metallic look is a decorative element that goes back to Egyptian times, or perhaps even earlier. The origins of metallic coatings “are as old as people have been experimenting with pigments,” reports Scot Holland, managing director of the Gold Leaf and Metallic Powders Division of NEI Group in Los Angeles.

“Metallic powders are the raw pigment that can be added to any clear or pigmented medium, depending on the desired effect. The only rule is that the medium needs to be clear and be able to adhere. You can add metallic powders to urethanes, shellac, waxes, polyester resin, ceramic glazes, glass and more,” Holland says. source

I love some of the metallic pieces I have been seeing on websites and via pinterest and have been wandering around the house looking for items/furniture to enhance with this great look!  One reason that it is so popular according to this source (same as above), is that it shows so well with the new more energy efficient lighting that many homes and companies are now using:

With metallic paints you get translucency, depth and shimmer. And with the shift away from fluorescent lighting to more use of incandescent and halogen, “the metallic surfaces sparkle,” says Hill. “Metallics play real well in natural light, too. You can see how that is with metallic automotive paints.”

Here are some more images as well as details of the three pieces I have refurbished with these paints (all sold).

Better After reader Rebecca's method seen below. Nothing more than Rustoleum's metallic aluminum enamel paint and a foam roller. And how cool does it look against that wallpaper, huh?    link to source

Rusoleum Image on Web

source link to website