JAXtutorial: DIY faux zinc

Originally posted at DTTD imagine.design.create
Zinc is hot. I did a search for “zinc” on the Restoration Hardware website, and 232 matches popped up. With crazy-high prices. But never fear – you can create your very own faux zinc for a fraction of the cost of the real thing. And it’s really easy.
After reading a bunch of tutorials for varying methods, I decided to go with the easiest one, mainly because I already had the supplies I needed. {Check out my Crafty Stuff pinboard for lots of examples of faux zinc.}
Are you ready for one of the easiest faux techniques ever? OK, here we go…
You’ll need:

• Black acrylic paint {I used FolkArt in Licorice}
• Metallic paint in silver {I used DecorArt Elegant Finish Metallic Paint in Shimmering Silver}
• Paint brush & pouncing brush
• Clear paste wax & a rag
• Something to paint :-)

This white ceramic jar was in one of the swag bags I picked up at IDS12 in January. The finish is rough & unfinished, which made it the perfect candidate to zinc-ify.

I totally forgot to take an in-progress shot, but it’s really simple – I just painted the jar black with my acrylic paint. When the paint was dry, I lightly rubbed on the silver paint with a pouncing brush.

After the silver coat dried, I rubbed on some clear paste wax, buffed it, and voila… faux zinc! It’s kind of hard to see the sheen in the picture, but it’s soft & subtle.

I used the same technique on this plastic bird that I picked up at the Dollar Store.

I did the exact same thing, painting it black…

…and then rubbing on the silver metallic paint, followed by some wax and buffing.

I didn’t apply wax to the base – can you see that the finish on the jar and the bird is a bit softer than on the base of the bird?

I used the same technique on a white frame from HomeSense {the other frames are getting the chalk paint treatment}.


Here’s the completed faux zinc frame with paint chip art that I whipped up in a few minutes so I wouldn’t be showing you a naked frame ;-)

Rubbing the paste wax onto the frame wiped off some of the finish, so the frame is waxless. I just gently buffed it with the same rag I used to apply the wax to the other pieces to up the sheen factor just a bit.
The great thing about creating faux zinc is that you really can’t screw it up. If you put on too much silver paint, just go over it with more black paint and do it again. If rubbing on the wax rubs off the paint, add more paint {speaking from experience!}. Seeing as you want an imperfect/uneven finish, you don’t have to be precise – more black here and more silver there gives the effect that you want, so don’t worry about spreading the silver paint evenly. See the colour variations in this close-up?

And that’s really all there is to it! I’m going to try out a couple of other faux zinc techniques – I have a plan in mind to make over an oak coffee table that we have with old wood boards and the faux zinc technique.  The Brickmaker’s Table from Restoration Hardware is the inspiration:

For a detailed video tutorial of a different faux zinc technique, check out Jami’s night stand project over at Freckled Laundry. She did an amazing job!

Are you inspired to zinc-ify something in your house?

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