Bev, a new client of mine, requested that I create a faux marble finished table top for her dining room table. This was my first such attempt at a faux marble look. After watching some youtube channels I knew I had this in the hat. I really didn’t need much other than a sponge I ripped apart to give me 5-6 pieces, a few paper plates (my just so happens to be Christmas ones), Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Original White (which is a mixture of Old White and Pure White 1:1) and a dose of confidence to just go for it!
Because my base was already black I was going to use it as a base to create a textured layer look with the sponged on white paint. Marble inherently has a very fluid and flowy feel to it so I began creating long “veins” of sponged on white streamers across the top. After allowing it to dry I began adding more layers of white until I achieved the look I was after. This took about 7-8 coats. You’ll also note that I also applied this technique to the sides of the table top to make it appear as though it is a full slab of marble.
I then drew on some very very light grey lines “veins” to make it more marble-like. I could have created heavier marbling with darker grey and a heavier hand. But the trick here is to continue to “blend”, heavy or not, blending more white on white gives a more authentic stone appearance. So very dreamy!
You can’t really see it in the pictures but all the layers give it a wonderful texture. By sanding between all the coats and applying more give it a “leather-like” finish. As a final step, I applied 7-8 coats of clear satin water-based (non-yellowing) Minwax Polyacrylic Topcoat. One could also do a high gloss finish to make it look even more realistic. Some tutorials even went as far as adding epoxy to give it the glass finish.