Another update for our gallery wall has been switching out or making over some of the frames we’ve had for years. Almost all our artwork in the gallery wall will be from our old apartment, but almost everything will be in a different frame.
One way I wanted to spice up a few frames was with gold leaf. I’d heard it was pretty easy thanks to Jenny at Little Green Notebook tackling a frame last year (I get all my DIY ideas from Jenny and from the Petersiks of Young House Love). I basically followed Jenny’s tutorial exactly – but I did use a sealer at the end after hearing that the leaf (which is actually a metal composite) can oxidize and discolor. The sealer came with the kit I bought, so no extra money spent.
Here’s a peek!
Frame #1 came apart for easy leafing. About to buff and seal this one.
Frame #2 wouldn’t come apart (fancier frame job on a watercolor that was a gift from a dear family friend years ago, but I never loved the silver outer frame) so it got taped with painter’s tape. Here it is with the sealer drying.
I was feeling proud of my leafing accomplishments until Monday. I headed over to the Bachelor Pad (we’re putting a few finishing touches on the apartment before the photo shoot on the 2nd!). I planned to gold leaf the front of the drawers of his TV unit to spice it up a bit. Which is how I VERY quickly learned that leafing laminate wood is not exactly… possible. We debated sanding the fronts to give the glue something to cling to (instead of beading up immediately) but ultimately decided to let it go. Kinda bummed that project didn’t work out, but I’m sure I’ll find SOMETHING else to gold leaf, right? Not all hope is lost 
Have you caught the gold leafing bug? All in all, I think each frame took me about an hour, maybe a little less. You have to wait for the size (glue) to set up, and the leafing itself was a little tedious on the bigger frame. But it wasn’t hard to pick up. An “intermediate” craft, I guess. Wondering what other’s have thought!
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I bought one of those kits and tried to gold-leaf a frame a few months ago. I had a hell of a time with the sheets – the glue came through as soon as I applied one, which made the next one stick to my fingers, and so on and so on. By about the fifth one they were half balled up on my fingers and I was just slapping them on in mass. Turned out kind of rough – definitely not as sleek as that finished one in your second photo. How did you avoid this?
Hmm, I have two guesses. One is that the size didn’t set up enough (it should dry 15-30 minutes until clear before placing the sheets). The other, related, is that the size was too thick to set up properly (I did have a very small area that gummed up where the size sort of puddled). I was also pretty careful to not get any of the size on my hands while it was still wet. I hope you’ll try it again!
Have you considered using spray adhesive (Super 77) to apply gold leafing on laminate surfaces? That’s how I always applied gold leaf to less conventional surfaces.. Good luck!
Interesting! I would have thought it would be too thick or uneven. Thanks for the tip, maybe I’ll try it out on a scrap piece!