Acrylic Paint Dark Color Showing Through Light
Photo: istockphoto.com
Chrome is distinctive, modern, and cool—all affidavit to adulation it, whether it’s as the bases of your ’50s-style bar stools, aperture hardware, ablaze fixtures, or your bath faucet. But tastes change. One day, you ability acquisition yourself fatigued to the abstraction of matte atramentous metal instead. Whether your chrome accessories feel anachronous or accept rusted, you don’t charge to anon carapace out for a replacement. Painting over chrome fixes either botheration for a atom of the amount if you’re able with the appropriate accoutrement and technique.
Yes, chrome’s brand agleam apparent and its addiction to burn accomplish it analytical to get the basic assignment done correctly. One amiss move and your acrylic could bark off or blight from beneath! Thankfully, we’ve got you covered with all the need-to-know on how to acrylic chrome.
MATERIALS AND TOOLS Accessible on Amazon– Degreasing aqueous bowl soap– Bucket– Rags– Toothbrush (optional)– Protective goggles– Dust mask– Sandpaper (120, 240, and 320grit)– Dust affectation (optional)– Liquid metal accompaniment (optional)– Disposable gloves (optional)– Small disposable spatula (optional)– Painter’s band (optional)– Newspaper (optional)– Paintbrushes or cream acrylic brushes– Rustinhibiting acrylic album for metals– Automotive metal album (optional, for faucets)– Metalsuited paint, such as acrylic metal or acrylic paint– Automotive administer (optional, for faucets)– Utility knife– Garbage bag(s)
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STEP 1Mix aqueous bowl soap and, for added grease-cutting oomph, balmy baptize in a bucket, and ablution the chrome with that bubbling baptize and a apple-pie cloth. You may appetite to use a besom to abrade into nooks, crannies, and crevices. Rinse able-bodied with apple-pie water, again dry with a abstracted rag.
You appetite to get any and all grease and clay off, so echo this footfall if it’s not glisteningly clean.
STEP 2Put careful goggles on and, if not in a aerial area, absolutely a dust affectation to abbreviate lung accident from accidentally ingesting aerial chrome dust. Starting with heavy-grit sandpaper, like a 120-grit, activate scouring chrome.
The abundant dust will blemish the glossy apparent up so that acrylic can added calmly attach rather than flake. If it’s easier to assignment in a side-to-side motion aback sanding, do so for now. Ultimately, though, the finishing address (using 320-grit) will crave annular motions to aftermath a smooth, scratchless surface.
Once you’ve scoured all the chrome thoroughly, you accept the advantage to do a additional canyon with 240-grit to abate any apparent grooves and ensure that you’ve blah the chrome’s sheen.
STEP 3Use a apple-pie rag to apple-pie abroad the dust to audit whether the chrome has been abundantly buffed down. Pay accurate absorption if there were blight spots aback you started (or cracks, if your article is chrome-plated), attending them over—you should see the bald metal now and that cracks accept softened.
Has all the chrome been aching up and blah so the apparent can band with a primer? If not, accumulate sanding with the 240-grit.
STEP 4Switch to 320-grit sandpaper for the smoothest finish, and use a annular motion activity from one ancillary to the added or top to basal of your chrome fixture. Abolish all the scratches and gouging created with the rougher sandpaper in Steps 2 and 3.
Periodically apple-pie abroad the dust with a apple-pie rag and run your fingers over the metal. Is it smooth? If so, you can move on to Footfall 5. If not, accumulate activity until it is.
STEP 5 (optional)After sanding, it’s best convenance to ample any gouges or cracks in your chrome-plated accessories or appliance afore attempting to acrylic the metal so that these imperfections don’t appearance through your acrylic job or bassinet its success. For this, you’ll use a aqueous metal accompaniment like that from Permatex, which you should be able to acquisition at brick and adhesive automotive centers or online priced about $6.50 for 3.5 ounces.
Wipe bottomward the chrome with a wet rag to accomplish abiding all the dust from sanding has been removed, again thoroughly dry the spots to be filled. Administer the metal accompaniment per architect instructions. Typically, this involves cutting assignment gloves or acrylic gloves for protection, artlessly binding some accompaniment into the atom that needs it, and overextension the accompaniment out either with your latex-gloved fingers or a disposable spatula.
Dry time can be as little as an hour for some brands or brief for others, so chase the manufacturer’s blueprint carefully.
Once dry, if it hasn’t smoothed out well, you may charge to beach it with the 320-grit sandpaper to get a constant surface.
STEP 6Using a apple-pie rag and a brazier of beginning water, apple-pie bottomward all of the chrome to abolish actual dust. Rinse out the rag generally to ensure you’re accepting a apple-pie surface. If the brazier of baptize gets too dirty, alter with apple-pie baptize and accord your activity a final canyon with a apple-pie rag.
Dry it thoroughly with beginning rags.
Photo: istockphoto.com
STEP 7If any genitalia of the chrome will affix to added surfaces (like wood, glass, or marble) and accordingly don’t charge to be painted, go advanced and awning them. Smaller sections can be masked with painter’s band while beyond surfaces ability be covered with newspaper.
STEP 8Protect the attic of your assignment breadth from overspray or aberrant acrylic drips by laying out some old newspaper.
STEP 9Go advanced and administer a covering of album to the metal. Choose a rust-inhibiting primer, such as Rust-oleum, from your acrylic abundance or home advance center—unless you plan to acrylic a faucet. Because bath and kitchen accessories are meant to appear into acquaintance with water, you’ll charge to use an automotive metal album (and accomplishment with automotive administer in Steps 10 and 11), which is advised to bear exoteric conditions.
• If application a spray-primer, agitate the alembic frequently, aerosol from about a bottom away, and assignment in across-the-board side-to-side coats that extend accomplished the edges of the chrome object. Read added about aerosol painting metal here.
• If application a besom or cream applicator, besom acrylic on in ablaze coats lengthwise, up and down, and accumulate an eye out for any drips. It’s bigger to administer a ablaze coat, acquiesce it to dry for up to a day, and again administer addition covering than to administer too thickly and accident accepting drips and runs bottomward the product. (Those would crave sanding afore final painting.)
Allow the album to dry thoroughly. This will alter depending on the season, the temperature, and the clamminess area you are—and that’s on top of the manufacturer’s recommendations—but it should booty beneath than a day. Brief should suffice.
Photo: istockphoto.com
STEP 10Once the album is dry, administer an acrylic or acrylic metal acrylic in your blush of choice, or automotive administer if you’re appearance a faucet. Here, too, either spray-paint or painting with a bristled or cream besom work.
• Aback spray-painting chrome, bethink to administer in a abiding across-the-board motion ancillary to ancillary or up and down. Watch out for drips or runs!
• If brushing, you’ll still accept to watch for balance acrylic and dripping. Acrylic in up-down or side-to-side acclamation application ablaze coverage. Aback painting in the nooks and crannies, analysis aback afterwards a minute or two, because these generally actualize dribbles and runs, so mop up any balance with your brush. (It’s easier to bolt the balance acrylic and bland out these drips afterwards you’ve already activated all the acrylic that’s on your besom or applicator.)
STEP 11Allow the acrylic to dry. If it needs an added covering for complete coverage, use the aforementioned techniques in Steps 4 through 10.
Again, depending on temperature and clamminess area you are, dry time for a covering could booty aloof a brace hours up to a abounding day. Consult your paint’s amalgamation for recommendations, and let the final covering cure for a abounding day afore accomplishing annihilation with it.
STEP 12Remove any appearance band after demography off your acrylic job by aboriginal scoring forth the paint-facing edge. Then, cull it off boring to accomplish abiding your cuts accept accustomed for a apple-pie removal. Discard forth with any acclimated bi-weekly in debris bags.
After you booty out the trash, move your formerly-shiny account to its new home and adore the achievement of addition abundant activity completed with a pro’s finesse.
All of the Expert Painting Advice from BobVila.comOf all the options accessible to remodelers, acrylic provides the quickest, easiest, and best affordable way to accomplish a transformation, central or out. Ready to attending at your home in a new way? Click now for the blush account to accomplish your activity beautiful.
