Faux Marbling

Marble is elegant, timeless, and evokes a feeling of luxury. Marble countertops are trending now in designer homes but did you know that furniture has long featured marble tops such as with Empire style furniture or Eastlake furniture. It can be quite expensive to have a marble slab cut and fitted to a furniture piece so creating a faux marble effect is much more economical and feasible. You can customize it with your own color palette while still getting that luxurious feel.

I decided to try my hand at faux marbling when I acquired a hand carved, teak, foyer table which called for something subtle as to not overwhelm the ornate details but complimented the soft blue I was planning on painting the body. I decided to go with a white, soft blue, gray, and gold veining design. I used Rustoleum’s primer+paint in glossy white as a base then painted with Fusion’s casement, soapstone, pebble, and heirloom.

I painted over the primer with casement. Using a sea sponge, I wet it first then dabbed on a bit of pebble, soapstone, and heirloom paint in random areas to give it the subtle coloration of marble. I use a rag to clean up certain areas and soak up the bleeding paint so it doesn’t look too blotchy. It’s a very instinctive process where you need to keep adding paint and touching up until you get the look you are trying to achieve. I used the finest tipped brush I have to draw the veining and kept my wrist loose so the lines don’t look so rigid. You can also use a feather by dipping it in a bit of paint at the tip and drawing it across the surface for the same effect. I take a natural bristle brush with some of the casement paint and tap on more white with just the tip of the brush to clean up the coloration and create more balance with the white areas. For a bit of glamur, I add some gold veining with decor wax and a fine tipped brush. I continue adding paint, dabbing, wiping, and fine tuning until the marble is to my liking. I love how this effect will look different everytime because it is hand painted and defined by the colors one chooses to use.

I seal it with epoxy resin because I want it to have a polished marble look with a mirror glass shine. I add just a touch of pearl mica powder into the resin while it is being mixed so it has a pearlescent glitter but still is translucent. The resin once it sets and cures will give the surface durability as well that other top coats can’t provide. It really looks absolutely amazing in person.