I fell in love with this sunburst mirror when I spotted it at Home Depot a few years ago. When I finally decided to hang it over my daughter’s bed, I pulled it out of our basement storage. My heart sank. The metal was tarnished with dark splotches all over it. I was bummed. I knew something needed to be done.
If it was silver, I would have polished and returned it to its original state, but I wasn’t sure I could do that with this particular metal. It’s obviously not real gold (ha, ha…come on peeps)! I needed something to touch up or cover it since I didn’t want to spend time trying to figuring out if I could get it looking good again. I could either use spray paint or something else that would touch it up in a similar way. I had purchased some gold Rub’n Buff product that I was going to use on this dresser hardware, which was practically screaming for a makeover.
I was immediately drawn to the hardware and plank-like look of the wood on the top and sides–the gnawed edges of the drawers not so much–but for only $40, I thought this solid wood dresser was a steal.
Once we moved to our new home with smaller bedrooms and had to move around our furniture, we no longer needed it. 🙁 I ended up giving it to one of my neighbors looking for a TV stand, but here’s a glimpse of my vision for a “blush pink and gold” dresser. Look how cute and fun these are. I especially love the gold pulls!
This beautiful nursery has another great example of a softer pink/peach dresser…
Anyway, I knew this was the perfect time to put my “goldifying” product to the test. I chose the Rub’n Buff over spray paint to touch up my mirror because I could finish it in my office instead of going to the garage to spray it, which meant I could keep an eye on the kiddos and complete it before nap time. Score!
After reading the instructions, I will be honest and tell you that I did get a bit nervous, but because I had my sights set on trying it out, I pressed on.
I started out with a paintbrush to apply it. Because of the shape of the mirror, the paintbrush took forever, so I started using my fingers to speed up the process. I could tell a difference with the Rub’n Buff on, but it was a little more subdued than I would have liked. Look closely. Can you see the 3 slats near the bottom middle where I used the product?
Here is another close-up angle of the first 3 slats I applied the product to. Can you spot them?
It was subtle, but it covered the tarnish pretty well. Overall, I would say it was a success, although you can still see a little bit of the darker tarnished areas if you look really close. In all honesty, the mirror looks practically like it did when I first bought it.
It was in my daughter’s room above her bed until we moved last year.
Then it lived over our piano for a while in our new home.
I still need to try out the gold spray paint, but since I don’t have that dresser anymore, I’ll be on the lookout for other projects to use it on. Since I used this Rub’n Buff almost 1-1/2 years ago, I haven’t had to touch it up since, and it’s held up beautifully–which is good because I hope this gold trend is here to stay.
Have you ever tried Rub’n Buff? Do you have a special trick to get tarnish off metal?