BrittanyMakes

If only you knew the real life of an accountant.  Being a blogger/accountant is so hard sometimes, it’s like mixing oil and water.  Seriously, all normality is lost during month-close, but I’m slowly climbing out of it and have found a spare minute to share with you the journey I took in finding the perfect gold spray paint :)

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t had very much luck picking out the perfect gold spray paint straight off the shelf.  The paint can caps are deceivingly shiny and beautiful, the majority of the paint cans claim to be metallic but aren’t, and I usually don’t have enough patience to test out a bunch of random gold spray paints.

Today is the day we’re going to test out some options, because I believe with all my heart there is a perfect gold spray paint out there for everyone.  I chose 5 readily available gold spray paint cans from 3 shops – Michael’s, Home Depot, and Blick Art Materials.

 

 

In all my gold experiences, I’ve come to the conclusion that the color spectrum of gold falls into a quadrant of 4 distinct shades: brassy gold, yellow gold, green gold, and a warm honey gold. Each shade holds a purpose, and it’s up to you as the designer to determine which shade jives best with your look.

Usually if I decide to ‘go gold’ on a project, I look past using gold spray paint and go straight to gold leaf.  We all know how much patience goes into playing with gold leaf!  I wanted to find a paint that would compare to gold leaf, to save myself a headache and my carpet from a bazillion flakes of foil.

let’s find the best can of gold spray paint!

Montana Gold Acrylic spray paint is a professional spray paint that artists typically use for creative tag art.  Unlike some other professional artist spray paints, Montana Gold has characteristics in its formula that parallel home improvement spray paints, in that it can adhere to almost any surface.  The paint is flexible and has decent coverage, and it sounds silly but I really like the spray cap – It’s super comfortable! I was surprised that this paint turned out to be one of my favorites, because when the paint first comes out of the can, even after shaking vigorously, the paint was clear and appeared watery.  It was as if the paint turned to gold once it hit the air.

What I love most about this paint is that it dries with a super shiny with an almost lacquer-like finish.  The only qualm I have is that the paint is a bit runny, so you definitely need primer first, then you have to spray 2 light coats in order to get full coverage.  This paint falls into the honey golden shade I mentioned earlier, it’s so beautiful and complex, and mimics gold leaf in a way I wouldn’t have expected from a spray paint.

 

 

Design Master paints are readily available at Michael’s.  I’ve never actually tried this brand until now, and I can’t believe I held out for so long.  Both Design Master paints below are high quality, and are shockingly metallic in person.  The Gold Medal paint can is probably the most beautiful of the yellow-gold variety.  Both cans of paint are so buttery smooth and rich it was difficult picking out which I liked better.  Although, if I was forced to choose I’d have to say my favorite between the two is the Brilliant Gold.

 

 

You can see what I mean about the shades of gold, right? Gold Metal above is a yellow gold, whereas the Brilliant Gold below is a warm honey gold.

 

 

The next two cans of paint are perhaps the most common brands amongst crafters and DIY enthusiasts.  I’ve used these cans in previous projects, but I can’t say I was ever ecstatic with the results. Rustoleum’s Metallic Gold spray paint is more photogenic than it appears in person.  In person the paint is a greenish gold – not my fave.  Although, I am a big fan of Rustoleum’s paint formula – it’s adhesion qualities are en point, I’ll probably skip on their metallic cans and stick with their colored paints.

 

 

Michael’s also sells Krylon brand spray paints, such as this 18K Gold paint can.  The paint is great, I really don’t have any negative things to say about it, it just doesn’t live up to the other 4 paints here.  I do think it’s a little overpriced for being a smaller can, but that’s just me being a cheap-o.  Since this paint is in the yellow category of gold, I would suggest only using this paint for small projects.  Anything larger than a picture frame will look more yellow than gold.  I also wish Krylon would change the cap – the cap looks like a beautiful metallic rose gold, when the paint is more like the color of the clock on the label.

 

 

Well there you have it! I hope this post is somewhat helpful for the next time you decide to go gold.