Faux Painted Spindles – A Staircase Makeover

In case you missed by tutorial at Funky Junk Interiors on painting iron spindles, I wanted to run it here on my blog!

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Many of my faux finishing clients are replacing their wooden spindles with iron ones. The cost of iron spindles depends on the number you need, the design and the paint finish you order on them.

One way to save on the cost of iron spindles is to order them in RAW iron and paint them yourself!

We changed all of the white spindles in my house to this a few years ago for a couple hundred dollars.

We ordered them in raw iron like this:

And then I got to work faux finishing them! I always use at least 2 metallic paints to faux spindles. These 2 colors are my favorite…. “Antique Bronze” and “Blackened Bronze.” They are both made my Modern Masters and available in most paint stores (Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore dealers). I know there are many metallic paints on the market… but these, in my opinion, are the best! Please look over more Modern Masters’ metallic paints on Amazon!

The secret tool for faux finishing painted spindles is this (drum rollllllllllll please):

A men’s shaving thingy-ma-jig! They can be found at Walmart, garage sales, eBay, etc. They make pouncing paint on a round surfaces a breeze!

We dip the brush in the paint and pounce it on the spindles. Remember… less is more. Use very little paint on your tool. In fact, dip it in paint and wipe most of it off the tool with a rag first. Too much paint with look “goopy”. And goopy is never good!

I usually work in sections…. doing the entire top half of a spindle with both colors. Feel free to double dip using one tool for both colors. Double dipping is totally allowed in faux finishing!

It took me literally 10 minutes to change my spindles from this:

To this:

Here is a closeup of my painted spindles.

This is a picture of another painted spindles job that we did where the clients ordered the iron in black for the base. We did 2 metallic colors over the black as well. Don’t cover up all of your base color… when it shows a little, then you see 3 colors, which is really pleasing to the eye!

Even though this painted spindles tutorial is centered around metal spindles… you could use this technique on anything small. Picture frames, iron bar stools, plant stands, ceiling medallions, etc. etc.

At the risk of ruining any TV career I may have (ha!)…… I had my son tape me fauxing the spindles in my basement that I had never gotten around to doing. It is a complete and utter disaster of a video. Because I love you all….. I’ll forewarn you of my mistakes:

• 1) Always clean up the room you are taping in (this was right before Christmas when we were in the middle of our basement remodel).
• 2) Always put on some makeup before being taped for a video.
• 3) Always put a really loud, but precious, 2-year-old in another room before beginning to tape.
• 4) Always teach your 8-year-old how to say goodbye before he just stops taping.

Bless you for even watching it. It was really a slow moving train wreck… but one of my first videos on this blog! Funky Junk Interiors was so sweet to air it! I will take their advice and invest in a tripod and a babysitter before I get videoed again!

Love my simple painted spindles that made a big impact on my stairs? For more home updates that you can do with just a little paint, please watch my FREE VIDEO: 10 things you can to do update your home before dinner!!