Hands up who’s tired of me faux marbling things? I’m afraid today I’m sharing a few pictures and the process of the latest unfortunate piece to be overcome by my mediocre marbling skills.
Going back quite a while, perhaps even before Cora was born, someone left a 6ft long IKEA Ribba picture ledge in our communal underground garage ‘free to a good home‘ refuse area. I used [albeit smaller] Ribba ledge’s in my brothers office update a few years ago and I really enjoyed how useful they are for styling [and restyling] a space without having to put a dozen holes in a wall. I brought the new to me ledge up to our apartment and there it sat, in the corner of our bedroom, for a very long time.
Someone had painted the picture ledge in a dark grey wall paint [ie – a paint in no way suitable for furniture], so I found it quite satisfying scraping off all the paint with an old library card. Once the picture ledge was clean, I painted it in four coats of white furniture paint. I knew for along time that I wouldn’t keep it as it’s original black as it was too close to the colour of our bedroom walls. I wanted the ledge to stand out from the wall and I figured, seeing as I faux marbled our bedside tables, I might as well see if I could do the same to the picture ledge. Matchy can sometimes be good [while also not being too matchy].
I used the same technique that I used when painting our bedside tables [see my tutorial here!] but in smaller amounts. The truth is that I didn’t have time to give it the same amount of detail as our bedside tables since I wanted it done during one of Cora’s naps. There’s nothing that will make you paint faster than the threat of a hungry baby.
I honestly didn’t know how it would turn out, but I’m really pleased with it. It doesn’t look like much now until I style it out a bit. It looks quite boring for, but it’s already done so much for the wall in our bedroom that is so awkward to hang things on. Not too bad for a free project!
Also featured – pink bedroom dresser – sneaky Mozart reflection
Love love love seeing you redo something 🙂 Am also in love with marble look at the moment though Im using faux-marble sticky paper….not as creative as your painting technique but some day soon i may try that 🙂
Ah thank you! I absolutely love updating pieces. Yes, the marble look is something I am completely in love with too and I don't think it's something that will go out of style. Ever. And you're among friends – I have marbled contact paper slapped on a good few things!
I love your faux marbling – it always looks so real! Also, like it would take so much patience!! I've got a couple of those IKEA picture ledges and never thought to paint them, but that marble look is such a brilliant idea!
Bonus that the whole thing was free! xx
I didn't spend too much time marbling this shelf, probably because because it's not very big TBH. It is time consuming for the size though, but I don't mind because in the long run it's totally worth it.
p.s. I cheated and didn't marble the back as much as the front because things will be on the shelf and I was feeling incredibly lazy.