How to make bronze paint yourself, how to dilute and apply  

Paint made from bronze powder is successfully used to decorate products made from various materials. Using this paint, you can give a characteristic texture and metallic shine not only to metal, but also to materials such as glass, gypsum, cardboard, concrete, plastic, etc. The reliability of adhesion of such a coating to the surface of the painted product is determined by the characteristics of the binding material that was used for preparing paint.

Bronze paint is often used to restore the finishing coatings of antique objects.

Main component of bronze paint

The main component of the paint, which allows you to paint products from various materials in a beautiful metallic color, is bronze powder. This powder, characterized by a very fine fraction, is produced by grinding metal in special mills. The metal that determines the color of the resulting powder can be pure copper or its zinc alloys. Depending on the metal used, the color of bronze powder varies from light golden to quite rich red.

Bronze paint base is fine-grained copper alloy powder

The quality of painting is influenced not only by the composition of the material, but also by the size of the bronze powder fraction. Thus, paint powder is considered one of the best in quality, which, when sifted through a sieve numbered 0.045, gives a residue of no more than 1%. In order to obtain bronze powder, the particles of which have a scaly shape, when grinding metal, this process is carried out with the addition of special lubricants to the mills. The highest quality powder, providing coverage up to 4500 cm 2 /g, is obtained by grinding not pure copper, but bronze alloys.

Characteristics of bronze powder

Shades of bronze paint, how to combine with other colors

Bronze design is suitable for medium-saturated tones; the best combination is obtained when autumn shades are used. The option is perceived interestingly when a contrast of warm and cold shades is used, but if only warm types are used, then an unusual result of mystery is obtained.

Using this color, you can enhance the color scheme, being a brown subspecies, they get a calm design due to their proximity to the natural type.

To select the appropriate shade of paint or material for finishing furniture that is purchased to order, it is most convenient to use the RAL scale. There are all shades of bronze here.

Bronze design is suitable for medium-saturated tones; the best combination is obtained when autumn shades are used.

Options for how different colors are combined with bronze:

• with pink you get a romantic mood, you need to create a soft combination, the use of warm types is suitable;
• there is an intersection with red due to the proximity in warmth, and red also goes with bronze, so they look harmonious together;
• The shades are very close to orange, because, in fact, orange is a bright type of brown, so bronze can be called a subshade of orange; together they look light and unobtrusive, gaining depth in the design;
• With yellow is also a related variant. Yellow is a light type, for this reason a contrasting effect is obtained when the colors are combined together;
• With green, you can get a natural, natural envelopment, but you should choose deep and dark types of greenish, rather than bright and light shades;
• With cold green, you can get a contrast effect, but while maintaining naturalness, it is important to choose light types of cold green, without excessive brightness;
• With blue, an option that people like to use for various surfaces, the best is considered to be the use of marine types, a contrasting combination is formed;
• With purple, and you can also use lilac types, the result will be exquisite;
• With brown, a transition of tones is achieved; due to the metallic shimmer, a deep design is obtained;
• With white, black, beige, gray you can get a complement to bronze; they emphasize the main tone.

With brown, a transition of tones is achieved; due to the metallic shimmer, a deep design is obtained.

Cooking features

In order to make paint from the powder obtained by grinding bronze, it is necessary to mix it with a binder material. The latter affects not only the characteristics of the paint and varnish coating and the scope of its application, but also the cost of the paint. Such a substance can be:

• varnishes intended for processing metal or wood;
• certain types of adhesive compositions;
• gelatin;
• egg powder dissolved in water, etc.

The components of bronze paint are thoroughly mixed before use and during the painting process, since metal particles quickly precipitate

The type of surface that will be painted with such a material influences its choice depending on the degree of its transparency. For example, to prepare bronze paint for wooden products, you can use a clear wood varnish.

The quantitative content of bronze powder in the paint determines the color intensity of the finished coating. Accordingly, if the goal is to obtain a coating with an intense bronze color, it is necessary to mix a larger amount of metal powder with the binder. As for the consistency, the finished paint should resemble thick sour cream, then with its help it will be possible to obtain a high-quality and reliable coating.

Sufficiently opaque bronze paint “stretches” behind the brush

Recommendations for use

If you decide to decorate any antique product with bronze paint, you can prepare it yourself or purchase a ready-made composition, which is also sold in aerosol cans.

There are some nuances to using paint made from bronze powder. Naturally, in order for the finished coating to adhere reliably, the surface to be painted must be thoroughly cleaned of dirt and rust (if it is metal). In addition, when painting, you should adhere to the following recommendations.

• To obtain a plastic and, accordingly, more durable finished coating, paint made from bronze powder should be applied in a thin layer. To obtain such a layer, the paint must be thoroughly rubbed over the surface after application (this can be done with a stiff brush or sponge).
• If nitro varnish is used as a binder for bronze paint, then it should be applied as quickly as possible, since it hardens and sets very quickly.
• In order for a bronze paint coating applied to metal to not only perform a decorative function, but also protect the surface from corrosion, the product must first be coated with a primer and only then painted.

A soft natural brush is suitable for applying bronze paint.

Features of use in the interior

When creating any interior, selecting compatible colors is a necessary part of the work. This point requires special attention.

Selection using the Ralo table (RAL) is considered convenient and simple; it includes different sets where you can find the shade you are interested in, and then ordering the desired option will not be difficult, you won’t have to spend a lot of time describing in the store what tone is required, you just need to name the digital code, indicated on the scale.

There are also other color scales: Cmyk RGB, Hex, it is possible to convert tables from one to another, usually you need to convert the HTML code to Ral, since the scale is the most popular and well-known.

Bronze is not used for arranging large parts; usually these are elements in furniture, decor, and individual small accessories. Therefore, it is even more important to decide on the areas where it will be appropriate, so as not to overdo it, otherwise the perception of the design will be difficult, and you will not be able to achieve comfort.

Bronze is not used for arranging large parts; usually these are elements in furniture, decor, and individual small accessories.

Furniture

Bronze handles and lines can be used on kitchen cabinets. You can put a table or coffee table in this option. Large furniture in a similar tone is rarely used. But in a large room you can put a sofa upholstered in bronze leather, but in this case there should not be more large accents.

In a large room you can place a sofa upholstered in bronze leather.

Doors

Entrance doors are usually installed in bronze; the shimmer makes it more interesting and attractive. It is better to paint with powder paint or hammer paint, which will create a textured surface.

Entrance doors are usually installed in bronze; the shimmer makes it more interesting and attractive.

Curtains, textiles and other decor

Curtains in a dark shade will provide good protection from the sun's rays, which is necessary for a bedroom for a sound sleep. You can purchase curtains or curtain hooks. You can always arrange small figurines, use picture frames, panels, mirrors, pillows, bedspreads, etc.

Curtains in a dark shade will provide good protection from the sun's rays, which is necessary for a bedroom for a sound sleep.

Spraying method

Painting by spraying, which uses bronze powder, is used in cases where objects with simple relief are subject to decoration. This coloring is performed in the following sequence.

• First, the surface must be prepared to ensure reliable adhesion of the paint layer to it.
• Dry powder paint is poured in a heap onto gauze laid in several layers. Gauze with sprinkled powder must be tied into a knot.
• A binder, which can be varnish or glue, is applied to the product to be painted. When applying the binder composition with a sponge or fabric swab, you must ensure that no fabric fibers or other foreign inclusions remain in its layer, which will worsen the decorative characteristics of the finished coating.
• While the binder composition has not hardened and is in a fluid state, shake a bundle of metal powder over it. Gauze, folded in several layers, acts as a sieve, through the cells of which only the smallest particles of paint powder spill out. When small particles of bronze powder fall on a layer of varnish or glue that has not yet hardened, they firmly adhere to it, forming a very beautiful and durable coating.

The great advantage of this painting method is that small particles of bronze are not coated with varnish or glue, which means they retain their bright metallic luster.

Coloring methods

The method of work is chosen based on the subject itself. There are two types of work: painting smooth and embossed objects. The most commonly used tool for applying paint is a spray gun. To make the coating more flexible, paint is applied in a thin layer, for this it is rubbed over the entire product with a brush or sponge; when using nitro varnish, I use quick movements, because it dries quickly. When working with metal, in order to prevent rust from appearing on it in the future, it is first primed. It is better to choose a soft natural brush.

To make the coating more flexible, paint is applied in a thin layer.

Painting surfaces with complex relief

Relief products require special attention and skill. Indeed, thanks to their bending shapes, the saturation of the paint on them should be adjusted in order to obtain the necessary shadows. To do the job beautifully, it is advisable to have artistic skills. The following recommendations will also help:

• Brown paint from an oil base is added to the oil varnish. The varnish itself, after adding paint, should not lose transparency, but should become slightly golden;
• The surface is completely covered with this mixture;
• The working surface is tilted so that when spraying the powder in large quantities falls on the protruding parts.

This method will help to get a good difference between the protruding parts and the recessed parts.

To do the job beautifully, it is advisable to have artistic skills.

Smooth surfaces are much easier to paint. Painting is carried out as a standard either with a brush, or the products are covered with a can of paint, if this type of paint was purchased. The distance between the product and the spray can should be approximately 20-30 centimeters, it is better to first practice and spray paint on an unnecessary surface to understand the principle of operation and paint the product beautifully and evenly.

The distance between the product and the can should be approximately 20-30 centimeters.

Spraying method

This method is suitable for painting products with simple relief. The work includes a number of actions:

1. First, prepare the surface to be painted to obtain good adhesion to the paint solution. It is cleaned of all contaminants; if areas with rust are removed from this metal product, the wood must be sanded.
2. Dry bronze powder is poured onto gauze, which is first bent several times. The gauze is tied in a knot.
3. The binding component that was chosen for painting work should be painted onto the desired object; it can be applied with a sponge or a lint-free cloth, a piece of leather will do. Make sure that the substance is not exposed to any elements that could give the product an uneven coating.
4. Before the binding component hardens on the object, powder is sprinkled on it. The gauze serves as a strainer, allowing only the smallest particles of powder to pass through. By combining with the binding component, the powder is well fixed, so the coating will be durable and beautiful.

The advantage of this method is that the particles of bronze powder are not covered with binding agents, and accordingly the product will be covered with a natural bronze sheen.

This method is suitable for painting products with simple relief.

Coating surfaces with a bronze color can decorate and make them unique, also achieving an antique or antique effect. This way you can create vintage items at home that are now in fashion. This antiquity effect may be appropriate if the interior of the apartment implies the presence of such decor. Working with paint is not difficult, but requires compliance with safety rules due to its explosion hazard. Convenient aerosol paints are available for sale; they are even easier to apply. With this method you can give objects a second life.

Painting surfaces with complex relief

The main difficulty in painting products with complex relief is that the finished coating must highlight all the depressions and convex elements in the smallest detail. Such work, in addition to knowledge of painting technology, also requires artistic skill from the performer.

The algorithm for performing this procedure is as follows.

1. For surfaces with complex terrain, it is better to use oil varnish as a binder. To give this varnish a golden-brown tint without reducing its transparency too much, brown oil paint is added. In this case, you should buy paint that is specifically designed for artistic work.
2. The binder composition tinted in this way is applied to the surface to be painted.
3. To spray paint powder onto the object being treated, you can also use a gauze knot, as in the previous case. The subtlety of painting complex relief surfaces lies in the fact that during the process of spraying metal powder they should be placed at an angle. This spraying of powder paint allows you to effectively highlight the protruding parts of the relief, making them more golden.

Having some experience in processing such surfaces, you can predict the results of painting in advance and, accordingly, adjust your actions. It is not necessary to paint objects with complex relief using the spraying method. To do this, you can use a simpler method, which involves the use of a pre-prepared coloring composition based on bronze powder, applied with a sponge or cloth swab.

The use of bronze color in design

Designers often turn to bronze to create unusual accents in a room. You can apply the shade for different styles. But the main rule is moderation; if there is too much bronze, you will get a loaded design that will put pressure and make the room uncomfortable to be in.

You can choose a variety of decorative elements that are painted bronze, or use figurines made of real bronze. There are finishing materials made in this tone.

In different rooms, the shade is designed differently; in order to think through the interior yourself, you can use the advice of professional designers.

You can choose a variety of decorative elements that are painted bronze, or use figurines made of real bronze.

Living room

Today, bronze chandeliers and other types of lighting fixtures are in particular demand among designers. If you install them in the living room, it will immediately be clear that the owner follows modern trends.

You can also place figurines or other accessories on the coffee table. Bronze-tone textile elements are used, and there may be pieces of bronze-tone leather on the pillows.

Bronze-tone textile elements are used.

Bedroom

In the bedroom, people who love this color can use it for big accents. But at the same time, many colors are not used; if this seems unacceptable, then only a few decorative elements can be placed.

If you choose bronzed wallpaper, then glue it with canvases of a different color. Curtains and other shades of bronze can be combined with the following shades:

• Ivory;
• White, beige;
• Gold;
• Turquoise.

In the bedroom, people who love this color can use it for big accents.

Kitchen

Manufacturers often install handles and other bronze-tone details on kitchen furniture, this allows you to immediately create accents in the room. There is no need to additionally purchase other decorative elements.

Household appliances of this color look gorgeous: oven, hood. They can also install taps and mixers to add more luxury to the interior.

Household appliances of this color look gorgeous: oven, hood.

Bathroom

In the bathroom, bronze is usually sufficient on faucets and taps. Or paint the piping parts with bronze paint to create an eye-catching addition.

The bathtub and sink look unusual in this shade; they will add sophistication to the overall background.

The bathtub and sink look unusual in this shade.

Hallway

In the hallway, frames on mirrors of this type can be used; an umbrella stand, a door handle, and a clothes hanger are also suitable. The dark bronze color will look beautiful in the hallway.

Dirt quickly appears in this room, for this reason you can use a combination with black. Bronze can also be present as parts in lighting fixtures.

In the hallway, frames on mirrors of this type can be used; an umbrella stand, a door handle, and a clothes hanger are also suitable.

Painting a flat surface

Restoring old coatings or applying a new paint layer to flat surfaces is not particularly difficult. The main thing that you should pay special attention to in such cases is the choice of binding material. You should also take into account the conditions in which the painted item will be located. Thus, for painting products that are used outdoors, varnishes intended for outdoor use are chosen as a binder.

The painting itself, when all the materials for its implementation are correctly selected, can be carried out using a brush or spray equipment. Often, ready-made compounds produced in aerosol cans are used to perform such work.

The nobility of the shade of bronze always attracts attention to an object or surface that is painted with a similar color. This type of painting is often used to update monuments made of ordinary steel, as well as to give the painted object a touch of antiquity.

How to select and prepare the necessary composition for painting

Nowadays, using bronze paint is not as labor-intensive as before. Previously, in order to obtain the required composition, bronze powder had to be thoroughly mixed in an organic solvent. Now special acrylic pigments are introduced into the composition of bronze paint, which are easily soluble 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 also eliminated the unpleasant odors that inevitably accompanied painting. Therefore, the choice of bronze paint can be made from two main options:

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

Each method has its own rational areas of application. For example, to paint surfaces with complex configurations or to renovate certain areas of antique interior items, painting with a brush is more suitable. Aerosol is more profitable if you want to get a bronze coating on a flat surface.

Benefits of the shade

They can be considered from the point of view of functionality and aesthetics of the achieved result:

1. The metal-containing pigments of the original powder or aerosol actually contain bronze, therefore, they protect the metal from corrosion (this applies to heating registers made by welding porch elements, etc.).

2. The excellent moisture resistance of the final coating will provide it with sufficient durability in the face of noticeable fluctuations in relative humidity. It is for this purpose that painting, for example, the metal frame of the mirror in the hallway in bronze color is a reasonable solution.
3. The bronze coating protects the surface from exposure to ultraviolet radiation, so this paint is functional for objects that are constantly exposed to the sun.
4. The aesthetic perception of things that are decided to be painted bronze turns out to be much higher: the bronze coating increases the nobility of the objects, and sometimes allows them to be successfully stylized as antique furnishings.

Naturally, all these advantages can fully manifest themselves only if all the interior items of the house are made in a similar style, for example, antique.

If the decoration of the premises contains, for example, silvery shades, painting something with bronze will mean stylistic inconsistency and basic bad taste.

Features and characteristics of the composition

Bronze paint comes in different types. The characteristics of paints and varnishes depend on the composition. Using a dye that gives the painted surface a bronze appearance, you can paint any item or object. Such paint necessarily contains the finest powder obtained from copper or a copper alloy. The use of a metal base gives paintwork a number of features.

Advantages and disadvantages

most paints and varnishes have a one-component form and are completely ready for use;

simultaneously colors and protects the surface from the negative effects of external factors;

gives the painted product or object a sophisticated and presentable look;

Resin-based coatings have anti-corrosion properties;

heat-resistant bronze enamels can be used to paint heated objects;

applied to the base using a brush, roller, or spray gun.

most formulations have a high price;

Resin- and solvent-based coatings have a toxic composition.

Preparatory work

An 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 aggravate it, since a layer of bronze paint is not one hundred percent protection from atmospheric moisture.

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

1. Mechanical cleaning by brushing using a steel brush or rotary sanding attachment. The method is suitable for flat metal surfaces.
2. Sandblasting, in which a metal surface is exposed to grains of sand under high pressure. In this way, you can obtain a cleaned surface of any configuration, but the apparatus 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 construction hair dryer is used, which increases the surface temperature to values ​​​​at which the previous paint is separated from the surface. This method is not suitable for antique items, since it can irreversibly damage the configuration of the item.

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