The other day on one of those night shifts as a Pinterest addict; I found an interesting piece of art that left me breathless for about .753 seconds! The beautiful metal work piece is part of a studio flat in Göteborg, Sweden.
You have to love the Scandinavian taste for decoration. Their clean lines and the use of natural light is always a must. They use white, beige and black with vibrant accent colors such as red, royal blue, pine green or yellow in their surroundings. Their furniture is simple, yet very functional. If you don’t believe me, go as IKEA! If you are planning on converting an area into Scandinavian, read this article for more hints about their style. Here are the rest of the pictures via La Maison d’Anna G.
Now, back to that beautiful work of art that took my breath and sleep; I think is doable. The metal plank on the Göteborg flat seem like it’s been left to rust. I’ve been searching the web for techniques on how to make metal rust but they all seemed to involve some kind of acid (a.k.a. toxic fumes). So I found out that maybe if it is acid that makes metal rust, some lemons and vinegar should do the trick. Another thing I found out was that not all metals are easy to rust for example galvanize and stainless steel. Here you’ll find some great ideas on how to use household products to rust metal and also here.
For this project I used 12”x12” 22-GA weldable steel sheets with a mill finish. I’ve combined some of the household products mentioned on the previous links: lemons, vinegar, water and salt but I added Rust-Oleum Hammered Spray Paint (how ironic!).
The first thing I did was to set my three metal planks over plastic bags. Although I used non-toxic products, the reaction of the metal tends to tarnish the surface of the floor beneath. After this I squeezed one lemon sparingly over these planks. Rapidly, I sprayed some vinegar I had previously poured on an old spray bottle. Let this rest for a day and this is how they ended up looking.
I had to make sure the metal planks were all dry before I sprayed paint them with the Rust Oleum. When applying the color, at the same time I sprayed some water since I wanted the look of dripping liquid instead of a “blob”. To break a little the sprayed color I also drizzled a little vinegar.
I continued adding some more water, vinegar, another lemon and a pinch of salt here and there until I acquired a convincing result. This project was like making a new food recipe where you just have to keep trying until the taste is just right.
To clean the metal planks, I used vegetable oil and a soft old sponge. This got rid of many small particles left by the paint. Afterwards I wash them with dish soap and water and let them to dry.
Here is my final art all mounted on my wall. I think that for an inexpensive project like this, it turn out nicely (sadly, not like my Scandinavian masterpiece art!). What do you think?
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