A Day in the Life of Hungover Barbie: Gold leafing

I need to stop going on Pinterest. I keep coming up with this "brilliant" ideas/projects that take me forever to complete. My most recent project was on a blog I saw HERE. This chick turned this Vittsjo nesting table from Ikea into a beautiful high end looking table, so of course I had to do the same. It's easy she said, only need little patients, she said... UM YEAH RIGHT!

Have you ever worked with gold leaf? Cause it's a bitch!

Before attempting this crappy project I watched countless videos and read a number of blogs on gold leafing. Apply adhesive, slap on gold leaf, and then add another coat of adhesive... seems simple enough. NOPE!

Issue #1: I live in a 750 square foot studio apartment, without a balcony

Issue #2: Spray adhesive gets everywhere (my remote will never be the same)

Issue #3: Gold leaf is a fussy fussy bitch. She needs to be handled as delicately as possible and even then she may still have a nervous breakdown and fall apart.

I started off with spray painting the table gold (at my moms house). Then I brought it home and put it together. As I was doing this I noticed that some of the spray paint was chipping, but thought that's okay I'm putting leaf over (#doomedfromthestart). Then I started with the gold leaf. I tried a number of different adhesives, but found Modge Podge to work the best. I must have put 40 hours into this table and it was not looking good.That's when I found this little gem... Liquid Leaf.

I should have started with this bad boy from the beginning. Once I finished leafing the entire table I went in with the liquid leaf and filled in all the cracks. It looked so good that I ended up covering the entire table with it. Doesn't it look so much better?!