How to Give Foam Polyurethane Crown Molding a Gorgeous Antique Bronzed Finish
My family is full of snobs, literally. If you are adding crown molding to your home they say, than you absolutely must use wood.
Yeah in a perfect world where I hit the lottery and could afford to crown out every room in wood maybe I would. But after looking at pricing of wood molding, and polyurethane molding, I figured heck with them, I can not only save a ton of money, but I can also pick molding with truly beautiful and unique designs. Designs that I simply could not find carved into wood, let alone with prices I could afford.
After extensive research on exactly how to install this type of molding, I went ahead and took the plunge. I ordered 63 linear feet of poly crown molding, and hoped for the best. Heck for just $155.00, how could I go wrong?
The poly molding came shipped in a few days, and I had it cut and up in about an hour in my 33 linear foot bathroom. I also ordered corner blocks to virtually eliminate the need to do 45 degree miter cuts on the ends. Yes, I saved myself a ton of time!
Next was to paint them. According to the site where I ordered my poly molding, they were ready to be painted, so all I had to do was pick my colors.
Seeing that my walls were freshly painted brown, I figured a beautiful bronze antique paint job on my crown molding would really snap it to life.
Surprisingly the finish came out 100 times better than I had ever imagined it would, and here is how I did it.
You want to paint the molding after you install it, because any small cuts in the molding where one end meets the other will need Spackle in order to hide the seam. So, before painting, just install the molding. After it is up, allow it to dry and then add your Spackle to hide seams. Next you can paint!
Here is how to get a beautiful metallic looking antique bronze finish on polyurethane crown molding
I used black high gloss interior paint. I brushed it onto the molding in one quick swoop. This part of the paint job does not have to be perfect, but be sure to cover all white that may show through for a deeper coloring for when you apply your metallic top coat.
Anyhow, after painting the crown molding black, it will likely look awful. You will want to cry and wonder why you ever did it in the first place. Fear not, this is just part of the process, and it will give your molding depth, especially if you have any dips/grooves for a design in the molding.
You will want to allow this paint to dry. It does not take long for it to dry, but let it sit for at least 2 hours or so that way any areas that have paint pooled can dry better.
Next you need your metallic bronze overcoat. I used a beautiful and unique color called Penny Copper, which is sold in small containers by Martha Stewart.
I shook the container and began swiping this penny copper paint on top of the black. I was astonished when I finished at just how stunning the crown molding looked using this technique to paint it.
Basically in order to get this sort of deep rich shade of copper you will need to use a black base coat. The high gloss black paint allowed the color of the bronze to come out darker and more rich, hence only needing a small amount of metallic paint to bring it to life. Without using the black base color, the metallic paint would not have shown so brightly and vividly, and would have required tons of coats. When you use a black base you literally only need one thin coat of the metallic paint, saving you time and money!
Tip- You do not need to use a copper color, you can get a rich metallic silver, or any color you choose that is metallic to finish your molding. Just always remember to use a black undercoat to bring out the shine!
Have fun, and enjoy your new room!
