switchplate covers update/tutorial

[dragonlady7]

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So the thing to keep in mind with this is that we gotta see how well the wear. A switchplate cover is a pretty high-traffic thing, and subject to a lot of wear. If these get too dingy I’m absolutely going to have to go buy fancy ceramic ones or something.

But. That said. Here is my final result, and below the cut is how I did this, partly because I want to remember how it worked LOL.

[Image description: A combo lightswitch/outlet with a black three-prong plug plugged into it, set into a white subway tile wall with a wooden breadboard leaned against it. The plate cover is painted with a mottled effect to look like a turquoise gemstone, complete with inset glitter to mimic the pyrite inclusions found in some raw turquoise.]

A better view of the glitter:

[Image description: Another turquoise-painted outlet faceplate on the background of a rumpled white dropcloth, my fingers visible tilting it toward the light so the flake glitter catches the light from the window.]

So I searched up for tutorials and found a few, each of which was like “can’t believe nobody else has done this”; I’m sharing the most helpful one here. What was thee very most helpful thing, though, was the writer’s pointing out that many different configurations of turquoise exist, so you can just pick a reference image and build off that. I did not in the end come very close to my reference, but decided instead to make it look sick as hell. LOL. I was just having too much fun doing whatever I wanted. So these are not super realistic! But then you wouldn’t… make an outlet faceplate out of real turquoise, so I felt like I wasn’t fooling anyone. Anyway–

How To Paint Faux Turquoise https://martha.net/2016/08/how-to-paint-faux-turquoise/.

So the first thing I did was find some very fine-grit sandpaper (I think I got 320? I found a mostly used-up sheet of it in the basement and just used the unused edge from where it had been fastened around a block, LOL) and went over the whole front surface of each plate I was going to paint, and then I washed them with dishsoap and hot water and dried them with a dish towel, because I figured finger grease, hand dirt, and sanding dust would keep the paint from sticking. I started with white plastic ones, the kind you get for up to a dollar at the hardware store.

Then I got a plastic container lid, put dollops of various of my paint samples in it, dug out the craft paints I got cleaning out Auntie’s basement and the sole tube of acrylics (Mars black) I could still find from the last time I did any painting, and went to town. The first couple, I did the pale shades and let them dry and came back to add the darker marbling. But then I was like, these are latex/acrylic, you don’t have to build them in layers? So I just did the rest of them with all the shading in more or less one pass.

Acrylic art paint and latex housepaint are both water-based, so there’s no conflict with using them intermingled. I’ve combined them before, I used to do a lot of sign painting and it works fine. Housepaint’s runnier, idk. Don’t mix oils and latex, is the thing to keep in mind; they just don’t stick to each other real well.

I went to the art supply store to get some water-based varnish, because all i had was polyurethane and that’s oil-based. It’d probably work as a topcoat but I was worried and the internet’s advice conflicted. I wanted to go get better glitter anyway, so I did. I happen to live near Hyatt’s All Things Creative https://www.hyatts.com/, so I take every excuse I can get to go there.

I bought some sick-ass glitter (over in the resin pouring section, hell yes), and puzzled thru the various offerings. (sassaffrassa https://tmblr.co/MlRJAsk337Gm_STFGiWQpeQ’s advice proved invaluable on this thank u.) I got just– “Gloss varnish acrylic medium”, the Hyatt’s brand, for four dollars and sixty-nine (nice) cents, and then because I was feeling spendy, I also bought Krylon spray-on glossy varnish. Belt and suspenders, y'know? Also to make the brush strokes less obvious.

The critical thing, though, about the gloss varnish, is that it says right on the bottle that you can either incorporate it into the paint as a medium to enhance the sheen, OR brush it over the finished work as a protective coating. Dries absolutely clear. So I knew, THIS is how I’m attaching the glitter. I’d been thinking like, mod podge? elmer’s glue? mix it into the paint? No.

[image description: the gloss varnish bottle. It is this product https://www.hyatts.com/art/hyatt-s-acrylic-8-oz-gloss-varnish-H56210. The relevant text says “can be used either as a medium to enhance the sheen levels of acrylic paint or as an over-varnish on finished artwork to provide a non-tacky, protective gloss coating”.]

So I carefully got open the little bottle of glitter (no sneezing! it was “white gold flake” style and cost eight bucks for like half a gram. to my knowledge it’s not actually made of gold but it was priced like it was) and painted little fine patches of gloss varnish onto the spots I wanted glittered, and then used tweezers to apply glitter just in those spots, and mooshed them around with the little varnish-covered brush until they stuck where I wanted them. (I put them on the darkest bits of the veining, because that was what my source image looked like, mostly. I wanted to be really liberal but then I thought, no, a little pop of glitter is more exciting actually. Still not sure, but it does look good so. They say measure that shit with your heart but I went light because I figured I could add more later, and then I didn’t.)

Then I came back at the end and painted more gloss varnish just over the glitter, just to make sure it was all really stuck down and wouldn’t flake off with wear.

Let that dry for a couple hours, then used a larger brush to spread gloss varnish as evenly as possible over the entirety of each plate. It did leave visible brush strokes, which I didn’t mind. The art shop guy suggested using a really soft brush to minimize that, and I was like “yah sure ok” but then, well, I didn’t, I just used the brush I had.)

But then I let that dry overnight, and in the morning I put the plates all in my giant overspray cardboard box, and gave them each a liberal coating of the spray varnish. (Yes of course I have a giant cardboard box I keep in my basement to spray paint things in. I know it says use in a well-ventilated space but what I do, see, is I do that and then I leave the room, which is almost as good. LOL it’s 24F and snowing I’m not doing it outside.)

That bottle says two hours until handling on it, so I left it two hours, and then I put up the plates that were in spots where the painting was done or wasn’t happening, hence my example image being against a tiled wall.

The screwdriver immediately scratched the first one a little bit, but not super obviously. But I kind of would expect a screwdriver to scratch just about anything, so that doesn’t mean much.

I won’t guarantee how well these’ll hold up but if you were interested in doing something like that, there’s how it worked. (Hi, future me, you’re welcome for writing it down lol.)

I’m sort of sorry for no more process pictures but honestly most of it was following whimsy and doing what I felt like and kind of drawing on what I hadn’t realized was a lot lot lot of hours of past paint-handling in my life, so pictures wouldn’t help anyone else recreate this. But it did remind me that I love to paint and should do that more. So, I’ll try, I guess. (Your picture was not posted)