DIY: Lacquer Lookalikes
January 25, 2012
It has been said to me by my mate on more than one occasion that when it comes to decor I have champagne taste on a beer budget. You’ll get no denial from me. I’ve long been in love with lacquer nesting boxes like these and these ~ they are such glamorous little vessels for storing everything small from jewelry to keepsakes. I happen to find them completely irresistible, but the problem is they’re pricey, up to $80 a box (or more!) for the designer versions.
So last weekend I decided to do my thang and mimic the look of these beauties with a few supplies from the craft store.
To make these yourself, here’s what you’ll need: wood jewelry boxes from craft store, small Phillips head screwdriver, paint colors of choice, wood filler, painter’s tape, medium and small paintbrushes, fine sanding wedge, high gloss coating.
First, remove the jewelry box clasps with the screwdriver but keep the open-and-close hinges in place. Fill the holes with wood filler (or wood putty) and sand the box to get it smooth. Paint the boxes with your base color of choice, but be sure to use painter’s tape in the opening, otherwise your paint will seal the box shut.
Once your base coat is fully dry, give it a light sanding if necessary to get rid of heavy brush strokes and tape off the box with painter’s tape to form your stripes.
Do you know the best way to get perfectly painted stripes? I learned this from readers (thank you!) and wrote about it here. Use the base paint to seal your painter’s tape, then paint over it with your stripe color. Peel up the tape while the second coat of the stripe color paint is still wet, it works every time!
I took my time with the stripes, painting the horizontal ones in the morning and waiting till they were fully dry, then finishing the vertical ones at night. Allow the paint to fully cure (at least 12 hours) before giving it the protective coat. The final step is to give it two coats of a high gloss, if you want a super shiny finish, or you could just leave them more matte, your call. I tried Martha’s High Gloss for this project, and it was pretty good, giving the boxes a nice glossy shine.
Allow the nesting boxes to fully dry, and there you have it, lookalikes for a fraction of the cost. Are they perfectly smooth like the real thing? Nope. Is there some visible wood grain? Yep, a little. They’re certainly not as perfect as the expensive lacquer versions but they look just as pretty to me.
I’ll use them to store keepsakes, cards, or other tiny things. The little one now holds all my business card contacts in my office … sweet!
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Tags: lacquer boxes
I totally am in the middle of a project just like this!!!! Love , love, LOVE!!!!!:)
Just beautiful and I need to do some!!
awesomeness. just awesomeness.
I like them even better than the expensive ones because they’re personal and made with love! I think I have a new project to do…!
Cuteness!!! Def on my list of things to try!
AH, I LOVE this! I’m gonna make this for a baby shower gift! Thank you! Andrea
Oh I love it! I don’t have a thing for lacquer boxes so the fact that the wood peeps through doesn’t bother me- they just look adorable. And this is a small enough job that I can try doing it on the porch of my new apartment. I really want to pretend that porch is a garage and just have at all kinds of projects :)
Love the color and detailing you added to the boxes!
Can you please let me know what color paint you used? I love the look!
Hi Katie! I mixed my own color, it’s half Legendary Blue by Pratt & Lambert and half Waterscape by Sherwin Williams… but two close matches on my fan decks are Pool Blue by Benjamin Moore and Mariner by Sherwin Williams!
Kate
Hi Lori, found them in the wood craft section at Michaels, $2 for the small box and up to $5 for the larger box.
Kate
These are super cute. You did a great job. I think I’m headed to Michael’s to get me some boxes! These are perfect for cute, chic, yet affordable storage. :-)
So cute Kate! I had to go out and immediately get some supplies to make this (besides, I had an A.C. Moore coupon burning a hole in my pocket!). :)
I had been looking for an excuse to try out some of the gloss acrylic craft paint, so this is my chance. And I will end up gifting the boxes (most likely an end-of-year teacher gift), so it works out well for everyone in the end! Thanks for sharing this project with us.
I discovered your blog this week and I love it. I would love to interview you for a blog I write for Redwood Writers. Send me an email when you can and we’ll schedule a phone interview. (I live in Santa Rosa.)
Love the color. Such a fun project!
Those boxes came out really nice. I have done them but with paint and paper. Gave them out as X-mas gifts to co-workers to keep their paperclips in.
Very cool!
LOVE this post!!!! Can’t wait to try this project!!
Wow those are super cute!
-Elyse
For Elyse Clothing Online
Wow, this is an awesome DIY! So glad I came across your blog. Side not question – have you spray painted wood like this before? If you have do you have any high gloss finishing spray you’d recommend?
love love love this! i have fallen in love with so many lacquer boxes only to have my heart broken by the price tag… a must try on my DIY list
xx
Hi Bettina, yes you could spray paint them, being such a little project, I chose to hand paint them instead, but yes you could. Also I know both Krylon and RustOleum offer clear gloss spray finishes, give them a try!
Kate
Great idea! I just started thinking about such a project, thank you for sharing the idea. Big fan of your blog!
Asia
[...] These lovely, little, lacquer-like boxes come to us via Centsational Girl. I LOVE them and think they would look absolutely amazing on my dressing table. Here is the link to the instruction page: http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2012/01/diy-lacquer-lookalikes/ [...]
For a smoother look, paint a couple layers of gesso on, sanding between coats with rottenstone ir diatomaceous earth (pool filter grade works just fine) to keep it glassy smooth.
Then do a couple of coats of your topcoat, sanding between coats, ending with the high-gloss spray.
Tsu Dho Nimh has great advice for making them look more like real lacquer. I do know that real lacquer is made from multiple thin coats of, well, lacquer, but there’s a product on the market that is a pour on finish that would give great lacquer-like results in one coat. I think Michael’s, AC Moore, and JoAnn’s probably all carry, though I’ve not looked for it in years. While it’s definitely pricier than other finishes, by the time you used enough spray or paint on finish as it would take to make the thick glaze of the pour-on kind, it might be pretty close money-wise and a whole lot easier work-wise. You’d have to take the boxes apart to use it and stand them upside down on something so the finish could drip off and you’d probably have to sand the edges where the box closes, but it would give that thick gloss like lacquer. It might be over the top for boxes, but would be great on a table top or chest of some sort… By the way, I stumbled across your website just last weekend and have already read almost every post. Your projects are amazing and you write with a very accessible and entertaining style.