Upcycling using gold leaf

[MadameSapphire]

Am planning on upcycling some bedside drawers using chalk paint and then putting a streak of gold leaf through the middle. I've seen some great photos for inspiration, just wondered if anyone had any advice about using real gold leaf or imitation gold leaf? (The latter is obviously much cheaper so would be preferable if it works well!) Any tips on using this from experienced upcyclers/crafters? TIA. :-)

Gentle, hopeful bump. 🤞🏼

i think you can get the imitation gold leaf super cheaply so it might not be expensive to try it to see if it works ok. Maybe try ebay or something for a cheap version.

I think it’s worth using a good quality imitation, I’ve upcycled a couple of bits and it looks fine. My DH bought it so can’t help on which brand but just don’t buy the cheap stuff

You need to practice! I’m pretty experienced at painting and paper, clay fabric crafts but gold leaf is about the hardest thing I’ve done. The leaf is very, very thin, and so is extremely difficult to control, you need a super clean workspace as if a grain of dust gets into the base liquid( ‘size’). It will stick and give you at best a bump and at worst a tear.

Some of the gold/ metal leaf suppliers do a paint with a very high metallic content. It’s much easier to use and doesn’t look that different from the real thing, certainly better than the usual ‘gold paints. The other thin might be gold finger rubbing paste, I’ve used this on mouldings to good results.

Thank you all! Some really helpful advice here. 😊