Could your apartment decor benefit from a lustrous change? Are you a crafty individual with a touch of free time you’d like to spend exercising your creative energy? If your answer to both of these questions is a resounding “yes,” you won’t have to spend money on new decor for your luxury apartment home.
A brief visit to your favorite crafts and fabrics shop and a few hours spent working can help you transform something you already own into a gold-clad masterpiece. Tastefully introduce bling to your apartment’s decor with one of these three DIY gold leaf decor projects.
Gold Leaf Flower Pots
Do you have flowers, succulents, or a small windowsill herb garden in your apartment? If you do or want to start one, you can enhance this space by adding gold leaf to the flower pots. One idea for decorating the pots: Emblazon them with funny or inspirational messages such as “Home Sweet Home” or “Life is Beautiful.” Carve out the letters you need using printable golf leaf paper, and apply them with the help of Mod Podge craft glue.
If you feel artsy and ambitious, you can draw or trace designs on gold leaf paper, cut them out, and stick them on the pots. Another option is to sketch a design using the Mod Podge adhesive and then sprinkle gold glitter over the area with glue on it until the design is illuminated with golden gleam. For maximum effect, purchase white flower pots or paint existing flower pots white before adding the gold leaf. The backdrop will really shine the focus on the gold leaf or glitter. The same general idea can be used to decorate vases and candle holders.
Gold Leaf Mirror or Art Frames
In addition to being functional, mirrors are a great way to magnify or brighten up a space. If you’re a fan of gold, why not adorn a mirror with gold paint or gold leaf? While more time-consuming than the DIY flower project, repurposing an existing mirror so its frame radiates a golden shine is totally doable pretty easy.
Gold Leaf Pumpkin
Halloween isn’t that far away, and before long you’re almost certain to have a pumpkin or two in your apartment. Carving is fun, but it isn’t for everyone. Besides, those miniature pumpkins that fill display spaces at stores this time of year are irresistible and far better suited to other pumpkin decorating projects. When you gold leaf a few of them, they make a centerpiece that friends won’t be able to resist commenting on. As long as the pumpkins last (small pumpkins can hang around unspoilt for ages), coating them in gold leaf will help you get away with keeping them around until the prime holiday season arrives. Visit Minted.com for DIY instructions that call for only pumpkins, gold leaf sheets, metal leaf adhesive, and a few paintbrushes.
Gold leaf looks great, costs little, and is a remarkably versatile decorating material. If one of these projects appeals to you, pick up or order some gold leaf and the other supplies you need, and Live Life + Love Life at a makeshift craft table in your apartment the next time you have some free time.
*Whenever you embark on a DIY project in your apartment home, it is essential to work over parchment paper, several layers of newspaper, a disposable table cloth, or another unimportant surface that will protect your furniture, carpet, and other surfaces from spills and stains.
Are you a DIYer who has experience working with gold leaf? Share details you are willing to divulge about a favorite DIY gold leaf project you have completed by commenting below!
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View All Posts by Jason Ernst