Decorating: Can It!

Can you make a kitschy chunk of plaster look like stone?

Yep. And the result is a nice looking piece of decor at a cost of $5.

I have a liking for the Greco-Roman look, a taste that’s hard to satisfy in rural North Central Texas, where “Country” and “Victorian” are the standard. So I take a good hard look at anything that resembles, even faintly, what I want.

“Faintly resembles” was exactly the description of a small plaster pedestal I saw at a recent garage sale. The shape was right, but the finish was a horrific blend of turquoise blue with orange “antiquing.” Bad, really bad.

But the price was $1, and I really wanted a plant stand to put by my French doors. So...

I took it home, scrubbed it off with a brush, then headed for WalMart, where I picked up a 99¢ can of flat gray paint, and a $6 can of “textured” paint, which gives a sort of sandy finish.

I used the gray stuff to cover up the blue-and-orange finish. (Tip: make sure you always turn something this ornate upside down and spray it from bottom to top as well as top to bottom. Otherwise, you’ll miss a lot of nooks and crannies.) I now had a flat gray pediestal. Better, but still not what I wanted.

Now for the textured paint. Used half a can. Light spray, right side up, upside down, and when I was finished, I had something that look so much like stone I was almost surprised to find it was still light enough to pick up easily. No more turquoise and orange.

I have my pedestal. $1 purchase price, $4 worth of paint. I went to a local statuary store and found concrete pedestals that weren’t nearly as good-looking for $40.

Just keep your eyes open. Chair seats can be recovered. Finishes can be repainted. Ugly pictures can be discarded, and the nice frames reused. Etc, etc.

Here's the original, gray-sprayed, and finished pedestal. The orginal finish looked even worse than it appears here.




A closeup of the detailing. Amazing, what a little spray paint can accomplish.