Decorating With Cherubs and Faux Aging Techniques

I use cherubs in my everyday decor because they work well with the cottage look in my sitting room.  Of course, they are also perfect for this time of year with Valentine's Day approaching. Since cherubs are easy to find in antique stores, Goodwill, HomeGoods, florists, and pottery stores, I thought you might like to see how I update these for decorating.

All of my cherubs except one were metallic gold like this:

Before

Isn't that lovely? All the sales clerks kept giving me odd looks like "Are you seriously wanting this?"  Considering they had no idea what I was going to do with it, I can't really blame them. Trust me, some of them were REALLY bad in their before state.

Little did they know that I planned to transform them into something really pretty.  With a few simple painting techniques, these gold cherubs are easily turned into the white or "concrete" cherubs that are very popular in romantic or shabby chic decor. The trick is to make all your cherubs look a bit different by varying the colors and painting techniques used for each one.

After

The cherub I showed above was painted black. Let that dry, then randomly paint various shades of gray and brown on it. When that is dry, add a tiny bit of white paint on a dry brush and take most of the paint off the brush with a paper towel. To finish, stipple the white paint over the whole piece. This gives a pretty aged garden look similar to concrete.

I lucked out with this sweet cherub. It was already aged and painted tan. However, since all my cherubs are white, I wanted it to blend in with my collection. To do this, I watered down some white craft paint, brushed the white on and wiped it back off with a rag. You may have to do several coats of it to get the look you are wanting.

Here was another gold beauty. I found this mirror at HomeGoods, and it was so ugly my mom tried to talk me out of it. However, I knew with some paint, it could be pretty. I started out by painting it white, then I dry brushed a golden brown and chocolate brown on top. When everything was dry, I dry brushed it again with white for a worn look.

This little container sets on my table, but began it's life as a Goodwill store find. For this look, start with a chocolate brown base coat. When it dries, dab some golden brown and a small amount of black on it. When everything is dry, put a little white on a dry brush and white wash the entire thing. Although it's not shown in the picture, I have potpourri in this container now.

My favorite cherubs are these wall accents. One set I believe is a handmade plaster set and the other is plastic. Both sets came from an antique booth and of course were also gold.

To get this look, paint the cherubs a golden brown. Then dry brush them with tan, white, and cream until you get a soft, streaky look.

I am sure many of you know how to age old finds with paint, but this is how I use paint to make odds and ends look like a collection.

I will show my whole sitting room later so you can see how the room came together.

If you liked this post, you'll enjoy my other Shabby Chic posts.
 

Linking to:

Primp Your Stuff Wednesday, Lil' Luna, Power Of Paint Party, Centerpiece Wednesday, Time Travel Thursday, Made U Look Thursday, Hookin' Up With HOH, Transformation Thursday, Home & Garden Thursday, Grace At Home, Tutorials, Tips, & Tidbits, Frugal Friday, Show & Tell Friday, Flaunt It Friday, Tickled Pink, Vintage Inspiration Friday, Feathered Nest Friday, Saturday Nite Special, Lovely Crafty Weekend, Seasonal Sunday, Sunny Simple Sunday, Masterpiece Monday, Make The Scene Monday, Creative Bloggers Party Mop It Up Monday, DYI Project Parade, Met Monday, Monday Funday, Tuesday Treasures, Table Top Tuesday, Tweak It Tuesday, Cowgirl Up