Faux Verdigris Compass Rose

Faux verdigris with paint is easier than one might think. A little paint, some saltwash & you’ll have a compass rose that looks to have weathered many storms.

I’ve wanted to add a compass rose to our coastal home for a very long time. I dreamed of an old one with gorgeous crusty patina, something that had weathered a storm or two.

I just couldn’t find what I was looking for, so I decided to create the look myself with paints and Saltwash Powder.

This post is sponsored by Saltwash. I’m a brand ambassador for the product, but all thoughts and opinions are my own. I’ve also included a few affiliate links in this post. 

A little Saltwash goes a long way and you can create this look with a small splash can. You can click on the side bar or here to get a special offer.

For those who don’t know Saltwash Powder is a paint additive that can be added to any paint to create a textured finish. It’s wonderful for achieving coastal, salt-sprayed looks. I knew it would be perfect for creating this faux verdigris finish.

What is verdigris?

ver·di·gris

1. a bright bluish-green encrustation or patina formed on copper or brass by atmospheric oxidation, consisting of basic copper carbonate.

I love that blue / green and knew it would look perfect at our seaside home.

I found a wonderful compass rose online HERE. Below you can see the “before” I really liked it “as is” BUT felt it blended in too much with the cedar shingles on our home.

You may already have everything you need to create this look or you may need to pick up a few supplies. Most of what I used is pretty basic. I prefer chip brushes for this technique as it’s easier to stipple the paint with them.

Another tip before you launch right into your project is maybe try it out on some sample boards. I always do this first to play with method and color variations.

Here you can see my sample boards:

How to Create a Faux Verdigris Compass Rose

Materials

• Compass Rose
• Saltwash Powder
• Chip Brushes
• Paints in Blues, Greens and Black (Duck Egg Blue, Florence, and Graphite Chalk Paint® by Annie Sloan)
• A copper colored paint – I used the primer in this paint kit but any copper color paint will do.
• Plastic cups and paint palette

Method

Step 1 – Mix some paint with Saltwash Powder. I mixed two different shades of green. Florence, a deeper more turqouise shade, and Duck Egg Blue, a muted green blue. When mixing you want to achieve a frosting-like consistency.

Step 2 – Set up a paint palette with the colors you’ll be using as you want them at the ready with several chip brushes.

Step 3 – I worked in a haphazard way across the whole compass rose. I dabbed some Graphite (Black Chalk Paint) then got another brush and layered on some of the paints mixed with Saltwash. Then a few dabs of copper.

I also like to swirl the colors in the paint palette to make custom mix colors.

The key to this technique is to allow some of the existing surface (if metal to show through).

In progress:

Step 4: Continue to layer the paints. More layers and textures make for a more realistic look. You can see the layers on my sample boards.

Step 5 – Once dry, apply a top coat for added protection. I used Annie Sloan’s clear lacquer in matt. It’s recommended to use two thin coats and to cover the entire piece with product.

Here’s a closer look at the finished compass rose:

What do you think? Were you fooled by this faux finish?

All that texture and patina makes my heart sing.

I know many of you are visual learners so I also made a little video:

I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I did creating it. I really LOVE faux finishes and think it’s just so freeing to play with paints.

I’m already thinking of a few more faux finishes I want to try out and share with you this fall.

If you’d like some more ideas with Saltwash you can find all my tutorials HERE. In this post, I used Chalk Paint by Annie Sloan made in the UK, you can read more about those colors HERE.

Finally, if you enjoyed this post you may want to pick up a copy of my eBook.