Distressed Gold Frame

I have been working on a salon wall for our guest room, and I have had this awesome gold framed mirror for quite a while.  I have never actually hung this up, because it just didn't really fit anywhere, so I decided to re-paint it to match better!

First, I taped off the mirror (of course).  

And HERE is the neat little trick I found online--put petroleum jelly on the parts that you want to look distressed (any parts that stick out farther than the rest, or areas that would naturally get more wear). 

You can't really see it, but I put a light layer of petroleum jelly on the leaves, and on the corners, and various other places.

Then, spray paint the sucker!  Two coats!

Once it is really really dry (about 6 hours after the second layer of paint), take a paper towel and rub over the spots where you put the petroleum jelly.  The paint will come right off!  This is good, because when you sand some of the paint down, there is a very fine line between the gold paint and the surface underneath.  This will make it easier to have the gold show through the paint you used.

Like this.

I used a  medium-grit sanding sponge to further distress the spots without paint.

Like this.

And this...

The finished product!  I am very happy with this, and that I can finally use it!  Tune back in on Friday to see how the salon wall turns out!