I have deemed the month of August the “month of the home office” here in my house, and today I have the first project for this space. I’m very excited to share my DIY Faux Galvanized Metal Magazine Holders with you!
I have a craft room right off the entryway of our home where I do the majority of the projects you see here on the blog. When it came time to write my blog posts, answer emails, and work on anything else on my laptop, I’d usually drag my laptop into the living room and sit on the couch, just so I could still hang out with my family instead of being cut off from them in my craft room.
A couple months ago, I decided to try moving a small table to a bare wall right off the kitchen and use it for a home office. It’s next to the living room, so I’m still with my crew, but have a dedicated space to work.
After a while, I realized that I love this space, but if it’s going to be a permanent fixture, it needs some style. I’ve sketched out my plans to turn this boring space into a rustic home office with flair. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing several projects with you for this space, then end with the big reveal. YAY!
Being a DIY and home decor blogger, I’m an avid reader of magazines in the same vain. They’ve mostly been stacked up in various baskets all over the house.
Meanwhile, I had these red and white magazine holders in my craft room that have been empty since the “big purge” of 2014. (It was scary, y’all – nothing was safe!)
The red and white floral pattern wasn’t the look I was going for with this home office, so I decided to paint them. Painting cardboard can be tricky, so I started with Rust-Oleum 2x Ultra Cover Primer in flat white.
When you prime cardboard, it doesn’t have to be perfect, but enough to just cover the pattern. This will allow the rest of the paint to adhere to the magazine holders.
The first real coat of paint was Rust-Oleum Metallic Finish in Silver. You can tell this paint is super shiny, which I like, but wanted these to look worn, like galvanized metal.
After the shiny silver dried, I lightly applied the second coat – silver with a flat finish. I didn’t fully cover the shiny silver with this coat. Instead, I just sprayed in blotches until bits and pieces of the shiny silver showed through the flat.
I allowed my magazine holders to dry overnight, then brought them inside to my craft room for the next steps.
I combined Ebony Black & Slate Grey acrylic paint, roughly a 50/50 mix, and dabbed this onto the magazine holders with a big brush.
I used a dry brush technique for this part. To do this, I dabbed the brush lightly in my black/grey paint mixture, then dabbed it on a paper plate to remove the majority of the paint. Then I dabbed the dry brush onto the magazine holder in a random pattern to make it look more like old metal.
There was no real rhyme or reason to my technique – I just painted until I got the look I was going for. I wanted the finish to look like old galvanized metal with some wear to it. I like that I can still see some of the shiny silver through the rough finish.
The dry brush technique I used also left a bit of texture to the magazine holders, which is a nice touch.
For the finishing touch, I grabbed a few 2″ cork circles and used my wood burning tool to add numbers to them.
I did a quick Periscope video yesterday showing my technique for this. You can catch that HERE.
After creating my numbers on the cork circles, I used a hot glue gun to attach them to the back of the magazine holders.
Aren’t they cool?!? I love the imperfection and roughness of these Faux Galvanized Metal Magazine Holders!
I can’t wait to get my shelving installed so I can pop these bad boys on there and have my magazines close at hand when I need a bit of inspiration!
Stay tuned for the next post in this home office makeover series coming next week, and definitely stick around for the big reveal at the end of the month!
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For more cool DIY projects, check these past posts out:
8 Responses
These turned out great!
These are so cool. I love the way they look with spray paint.
Wow, I love these! I will definitely give this technique a try. 🙂
I love these. I use paint on everything 🙂 but I have never tried the metallic paints. I’m going to be giving them second look next time I’m in the paint store. This would go great in my sons’ room.
Thanks Bethany! I think so, too 🙂 It’s always nice when a project turns out better than you anticipated!
Thank you Candi!
Thanks Kimm! I love them, too – they go great with the rest of my decor with the rustic feel to them.
The metallics are so fun! And I love that Rust-Oleum offers both shiny & matte versions of a lot of the metallic colors. Don’t forget the primer, though, if you’re doing cardboard like my magazine holders! 🙂
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