Surface painting with bronze paint

The noble shade of bronze always draws attention to an object or surface that is painted in a similar color. Such staining is often used to update monuments made of ordinary steel, as well as to give the painted object a touch of antiquity.

Content:

• How to choose and prepare the necessary composition for coloring
• Shade benefits
• Preparatory work
• How to color an item

How to choose and prepare the necessary composition for coloring

Now the use of bronze paint is not as labor intensive as before. Previously, in order to obtain the required composition, the bronze powder had to be thoroughly mixed in an organic solvent. Now special acrylic pigments are introduced into the composition of bronze paint, which dissolve well even with water.

The presence of an acrylic component allows you to get rid of another drawback of the previous bronze paint - its electrical conductivity, which limited the use of the composition when painting some metal surfaces. Finally, replacing the solvent with acrylic removed the unpleasant odors that inevitably accompanied the staining. Therefore, the choice of paint color "bronze" can be made of two main options:

• acrylic paint, which is applied to the surface using traditional painting accessories;
• bronze paint in spray cans, the spray of which will perform coating by conventional spraying.

Each of the methods has its rational areas of application. For example, to paint surfaces that are complex in configuration or to renovate individual sections of antique interior items, brushing is more suitable. Aerosol is more profitable if you want to get a bronze coating on a flat surface.

Shade benefits

They can be considered in terms of functionality and aesthetics of the result:

1. The metal-containing pigments of the initial powder or aerosol really contain bronze, therefore, they protect the metal from corrosion (this applies to heating registers made by welding porch elements, etc.).
2. Excellent moisture resistance of the final coating will provide it with sufficient durability with noticeable fluctuations in relative humidity. It is for this purpose that to paint in bronze color, for example, the metal frame of the mirror in the hallway, is a reasonable solution.
3. The bronze coating protects the surface from ultraviolet radiation, so this paint is functional for objects that are constantly exposed to the sun.
4. The aesthetic perception of things that it was decided to paint in bronze turns out to be much higher: a bronze coating increases the nobility of objects, and sometimes it allows you to successfully style them in an antique setting.

Naturally, all these advantages can fully manifest themselves only in the case when all the home furnishings are made in a similar style solution, for example, antique.

If, for example, silver shades are present in the decoration of the premises, painting something with bronze will mean stylistic inconsistency and elementary bad taste.

Preparatory work

The old surface, on which cracks and chips are clearly visible, and for metal - also traces of corrosion - must be thoroughly cleaned and sanded before painting. The fact is that the presence of a metal-containing acrylic pigment will not protect the metal from corrosion, but will only exacerbate it, since a layer of bronze paint is not one hundred percent protection against atmospheric moisture.

To remove the old coating, you can use one of the following methods:

1. Mechanical cleaning by brushing using a steel brush or a rotating grinding nozzle. The method is suitable for flat metal surfaces.
2. Sandblasting, in which the metal surface is exposed to sand grains under high pressure. In this way, you can get a cleaned surface of any configuration, however, the device itself is relatively scarce and most often has a stationary design.
3. Chemical cleaning with special compounds that are applied to the old coating.
4. Thermal cleaning, for which a powerful building hair dryer is used, which raises the surface temperature to values ​​at which the old paint is separated from the surface. For ancient things, this method is not suitable, since it can irreversibly damage the configuration of the item.

The dry surface must then be primed using a colorless primer.

How to color an item

Painting can be done in one or more layers. In the first case, the coating can be obtained more monophonic, but in the second you can achieve an expressive final result.

You can paint the surface in one layer with brushes or a paint roller, if the surface to be painted is even and flat. Of particular importance is the quality of the brush - hard hairs can remain on the coating and disrupt its integrity.

You can evaluate the color quality by the uniformity of the reflection of the finished surface under a directional light source. If there are no spots with a different color, then the object was painted quite qualitatively.

To paint a thing or surface "bronze" in several layers, you must:

1. Pre-coat with an acrylic compound containing bronze components, or with a spray can. Since the quality does not play a special role here, the use of aerosol in the spray can significantly speed up the staining process.
2. If it is necessary to obtain the effect of a multilayer bronze coating, then paint is applied again on a dried surface, but before that, the acrylic base is diluted with water to make the final color less saturated. If you want to use an aerosol in the spray for these purposes, you will have to choose a color that is lighter compared to the color of the first stain.
3. To obtain a relief on the surface of the object, it is necessary to paint the corresponding protruding parts with bronze paint of the same color.
4. To paint an object with a characteristic metallic luster, bronze powder is applied to the still not dried bronze paint, for which the acrylic composition is prepared with a lack of water, creating a more viscous consistency for the paint.

To paint something “in bronze” is absolutely harmless from an environmental point of view. But the appearance of the object and its ability to withstand sharp fluctuations in humidity and temperature - both in the house and outside it, improves.