Just Paint It: Glossy Wood Tone – My “Secret Weapon”

I’ve been using Glossy Wood Tone by Design Master ever since I had my flower shop a long, long, long time ago. It’s one of my ‘staples’ for floral design, which I tend to do every year around this time.

More on flowers later.

The other day at Michael’s I picked up my annual can of Glossy Wood Tone. I can usually make one can last a while.

A “while” being one day, in my world.

I know there are other spray stains on the market but I haven’t tried them. Why would I when Glossy Wood Tone does everything I want it too. Well, ok, I have used Cherry and Walnut Wood Tone on occasion. They’re both pretty, but for what I want, Glossy Wood Tone is my go-to spray.

This ~~day~~ year I gathered up my thrift store basket and grapevine wreath along with pinecones from the cabin and acorns from the yard, and grabbed my ‘secret weapon’.

First up, the wreath. Don’t get me wrong, I like rustic and natural looking things. But GWT doesn’t cover or camouflage the natural qualities. It enhances them.

At least I think so.

It’s translucent, so it’s like a stain, not a paint. It’s lacquer based, so it adds a nice sheen. You can use it on nearly any surface, including flowers and plastic.

It’s awesome.

It’s so awesome that we had a standing joke at the craft store where I worked. If something new came in that was, well, not very attractive, one of us would say, “Just Glossy Wood Tone it.”

I’m not even kidding.

Anyway, here are my acorns and pinecones in their perfectly natural state.

And here are the acorns after a light coating of GWT. Look at the green ones. They’re still green, right? They just have a little ‘antiquing’ now. And the others? They range from honey to dark chocolate now. Yum.

Do I always use food terms for colors? Yep. Pretty much.

A plain little basket before.

A rich, warm basket after.

I trust my secret weapon so much that I used it on this old bowl I found at the cabin. It’s probably an antique, it’s so old. Neither Mom nor I could remember anything about it or where it came from. It’s just always been there. Or was.

Now it’s here. Not there.

I sprayed the base with a brown opaque paint, but it didn’t look too brown. That was fine with me. I didn’t have to tape it off when I sprayed the GWT.

I’m not a fan of taping. I’m even less of a fan of sanding. Which explains why I didn’t sand this probably antique bowl.

That, and it has a major split running through it. So I’m figuring when Antiques Roadshow comes thru town they won’t ding me for spray ~~painting~~ staining a probably antique bowl.

I wouldn’t care if they did ding me either because I’m now in love with my new spray stained probably antique bowl that’s holding my once gray now rich warm pinecones.