Creating Gilded Paris Apartment Doors

The master bathroom has a series of basic builder bi-fold paneled doors.

Part of the makeover in the bathroom was to create the look of those lovely

paneled doors you might see in France~

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Don't these doors make you swoon?

Vogue.com

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These paneled doors with gold leaf on a taupe base 

were one of the inspiration photos I came across.

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I loved these paneled doors and thought I would copy the look.

Let me show you how I recreated this effect to give

my bathroom a touch of Parisian Apartment.

I used a couple of narrow angled paint brushes,

 called sash brushes, to do the door panels with some accuracy.

 This new product I discovered whilst stumbling 
around the paint department at Lowes

is my new favorite thing! It was on clearance, 
which means it is probably being discontinued,

so I would advise you to go get a quart ASAP!! 
This works to create a gilded effect with wonderful results. 
 I had my Brilliant Metals mixed up to be the Brass color. 

 An assortment of furniture appliques which I also found at Lowes, 

but these can be ordered on many online websites as well. 

I wanted a big applique in the center panel with 

smaller ones on the top and bottom panels.

Annie Sloan Antoinette is the highlight color 

I used for the panels along with the gold paint.

First I painted all the trim with Lowes Valspar Oregon Coast, 

which is a milk chocolate color.

 This takes some patience and time~

but the main thing is don't stress about painting everything 

perfectly in the lines. It is going to look wonderful even 

when it is applied in a less than perfect manner.

I painted the doors and left the frames white so 

I could fill in with the pink Antoinette Chalk Paint®.

 See how sloppy artistically I applied the paints? 

I did one coat of each color.

 This is a good shot of one door untouched, 

one door with the white frames and one door ready to be gilded.

 This is the part that you need to be more careful about. 

Tape off the doors around the panels.

I planed to paint outside the framed panel groove as

 well as the groove to make a bigger section of gilding.

 The Brilliant Metals is AWESOME stuff!! 

For less than $20 a quart it is a steal and it is 

quite a good copy of gilding~I am loving this brass brilliant metals! 

Ok, so after I painted the gold color 

I waited about ten minutes and then removed the tape 

and reused it on the next door because I am thrifty.

 Here is one set of doors all gilded without 

the appliques in place~very pretty this way too.

I painted the appliques with the Oregon Coast first, 

and then applied the brilliant metals. After they dried in like ten minutes,

 I applied to the closet doors with hot glue. Voila! 

 The doors really create a mood in the bathroom now~

they were a bland wall of folding doors,

and now they are a focal point. 

I LOVE how they turned out!

 My version of Gilded Parisian Doors~

 Taking these bland boring closet doors on an elevator ride~

To the top of the Eiffel Tower! 

I'll be working on the other parts of the bathroom makeover this week,

but these doors give you a hint of where I am headed....