Woodworking appliques are beautiful in simple white. If you feel bold though, add a splash of color.
[This is part of our Our Molding Makeover. See all updates here.]
I thought I’d paint the center of this applique gold to see how it looks up against our blue ceiling border.
Come take a look and tell me what you think!
Vendor Decorators Supply Corp
Item 11759 from Catalog 124, p 288
Dimensions 3-1/8″ diameter
Test Paint Your Appliques
Compo appliques are shipped in their raw color of medium brown. Here I’ve put a coat of primer on this one before throwing a test coat of gold paint in the center.
This or a very similar flower applique will go on the ceiling of our half bathroom, and I’m painting this one so I can test the size of the ceiling border.
Since it only took a few minutes, I dabbed two coats of gold paint in the center so I can see how it looks.
The applique is held up with two of those 3M double-sided sticky poster things.
This blue is something Jennifer is just flirting with, the final border color will probably be dark green.
Related Posts
- Applique Inventory (category)
What kind of paint do you use for the appliques? Are they just glued into place?
I’ve used all kinds of paint on appliques, Matthew. And so have designers through out history. So you are pretty much free to do as you like.
Mostly I use whatever the trim paint is, or some other accent color in the room. But the gold paint I used in this post is regular ol’ artist’s acrylic I bought at an art supply store.
The appliques from Decorators Supply are made from a material they call “compo.” Compo has glue all mixed in with it. To activate the glue, you hold the applique over a steam bath to make it soft and pliable, and then lay on a bare wood surface. When dry, it’s glued to the surface.
However, I’m always applying my appliques to mdf board that’s already been primed, so I just glue it on like you would any other ornament. Sometimes I shoot a few 23 gauge pin nails into it to hold it in place.
In the near future I’m going to do a tutorial on how to install appliques using the steam on wood method. But that won’t be fore a little while yet as I’m so far behind on my posting schedule.