Faux Enamelware Technique Completely Transformed This Aluminum Tea Pot

Written by: KAYLA ALLEN

May 23, 2023

On one of our annual trips to Anything Goes Trading Co. in Boaz, Ky., I picked up this old kettle. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with it at the time. I am not even sure that I felt like it needed to be painted. I thought it might look cute like this in my spring decor, but I ended up not using it and later thought a red kettle would be nice to have to go on my stove with my vintage strawberry decor.

Thankfully, I remembered this kettle. So, of course, I wanted to paint it up. I decided to give it a faux enamelware finish. I am so in love with how it turned out. I am not sure anyone would know that it is not enamelware; it looks so much like it.

To prep it, all I did was tape off the handle and the pieces that the handle attached to. I knew if I painted those pieces it would look a little fake. I used painter's tape and a sharp knife to cover everything I didn't want to be painted. Then I headed outside with some spray paint.

I used two different ones. This was mostly because I wasn't sure I would have enough of the gloss and I wanted to make sure that was the top coat. I used Krylon Fusion All in One Matte Red Pepper Paint for the base coat. Then I used the Krylon Indoor/Outdoor Gloss Banner Red to do the other coats. It took about three coats. It is really important that you use a gloss finish, especially if you want an enamelware look. Be sure to apply nice, even, thin coats. I also painted the inside.

After it dried I brought it into the house and removed the painter's tape. You can use a wire brush to clean up any metal and get rid of rust. I cleaned up a little but decided to keep the rust on the wire part of the handle.

Now, I wasn't crazy about how the wood looked on the handle. I wanted it to look more brown. So I used my trusty sander with 80 grit sandpaper to sand it down and clean it up. It took a little more elbow grease than I thought it would. When it was all cleaned up I used some Mod Podge to seal it. You could also use Polyurethane. This is for decoration only so I thought Mod Podge would be adequate.

On my second coat of ModPodge, I mixed in a little bit of Apple Barrel Milk Chocolate Acrylic Paint -- just a tad. I wanted to tint the ModPodge a bit to give the handle a little bit more of a brown tint.

Now comes the enamelware part. You wouldn't believe how easy this is. All you need is some Matte Black Acrylic Paint and a small pouncer. I dipped the pouncer in the paint and removed the excess. Then I just rubbed it in spots -- across the top and the bottom, and around the spout. I then took the edge of the pouncer and rubbed lines on the outside of the kettle. This is supposed to look random and organic. The main thing is to not overdo it!

And that is all it took. You can use this same technique on plastic or glass. I don't know about you, but it looks totally authentic to me... and it looks great on my stove with all of my strawberry decor.

Keep your eyes on something you can transform with this technique the next time you go thrifting. Wouldn't this be super pretty in white too? You could even take it a step further and make it speckled.

Be sure to watch the video below to actually see the transformation process.