Workshop Wednesday: Paint Pouring & More!

On today's show:

• Fast DIY: Paint Pouring Fall Pumpkins (0:34)
• $200 Tip: Leaking Toilet Fast Fix (2:10)
• Project Follow-up: Sliding Barn Door (4:13)

Links from the show:

• Sliding Barn Door Build
• Last week's show
• Submit your project
• MDP Newsletter

A Pinterest search of the terms "paint pouring," "acrylic pouring," or "marbling," will send you down a rabbit-hole of great projects and techniques! For the purpose of this tutorial, I'll be using the term "paint pouring." As part of the Rust-Oleum, Creator Studio community, in which anyone can join, I was sent a package of Testor's products to try out. This is only one way to paint pour, there are many other techniques that can be used. I'm making a trio of "pumpkins" for a little fall decor. Prior to pouring the paint, I sprayed the rounds with Rust-Oleum's metallic rust color spray paint. Painting the wood helps the paint to move more smoothly across the surface of the wood.

Materials:

• Paint medium (Amazon)
• Acrylic paint
• Wood round (Amazon)
• Silicone (Amazon)

To paint pour, you need paint and a pouring medium. Testors calls theirs a Marbling Medium. Most brands call theirs a pouring medium. The Testors brand is mixed in a 1 to 1 ratio, that is, one part paint to one part marbling medium. So if you use a tablespoon of paint, you'll need to stir in a tablespoon of marbling medium. This medium thins the paint so that it is able to move over the surface of the project you are creating.

I just 'eye-balled' the amount. Note: that is not two colors of paint on top of the marbling medium. That's just how it looked before I stirred it.

Once all the paints are mixed, it's time to pour. I poured them individually over the project in a random pattern. You'll notice there is more orange than the other colors. That was on purpose as I wanted that to be the predominant color.

The project is tilted and moved until the paint covers the surface and down the sides. I didn't use enough paint for the sides, so I went back and painted these after it was dry. The gold was added, undiluted, to the project randomly where I wanted highlights.

The gold paint helped to create those "cells" --the circle-like things in the surface of the paint. I also used a spritz of silicone to further encourage cell formation--just a little, and not over the entire surface. A few randomly placed cells is more interesting in my option.

To finish the "pumpkins" I cut a child's toy block at an angle, sanded it roughly and hot glued it to the top for a stem. I tied on jute string, and made tendrils from green floral wire. I spray painted the stands with the same color as the wood rounds were initially sprayed.