DIY Faux Antique Finish: Globe

A few months ago I shared my deals from the Kane County FleaMarket trip.

I nabbed a globe I had been on the hunt for all summer –with a great price of about 15 bucks.
Globes seem to be all the rage this year, and I wanted a piece of the action.

But, it was a little too “blue” for my liking. I needed to add something to it--make it look less classroom and more vintage. Faux antique finish coming right up...

I started with the base. I hosed off all the flea market grime, and then whipped out my all-time favorite spray paint; Rustoleum’s Oil Rubbed Bronze and went to town.

my assistant...supervising as usual.

The easy part was done.

I got out my stash of craft paints and modge podge and did some mixing, testing, more mixing and waiting until I could find a color I thought would work. I did my tests on a magazine cover since it had a similar glossy finish as the globe. I thought I would at the least get an idea of how it would turn out.

I ended up with about 2 parts Mod Podge Matte, and one part mixture of a few different brown/bronzey shades of acrylic paints.

I used a mini foam paint roller from Hobby Lobby.

 And...I rolled my homemade mixture all over the globe, trying to avoid any big globs, but also making sure I applied it unevenly.

I wanted it to look like it was stored in grandma’s attic for 30 years instead of straight out of a 4th grade social studies class.

My globe found a home in the living room, but may find its way up to our loft. I keep moving things around lately. Plus, the loft is getting some new life (to be revealed soon!)

In the end, I am happy with the turn out. I wanted to do this as a test for my bigger project, my map from the same flea market. But, I am not sure if I want to use the same method to antique it.

Any faux antique glaze tips or suggestions?

Did you jump on the globe bandwagon this year?