DIY Wynand van der Merwe DIY Wynand van der Merwe

A dash of RoseGold | Protea DIY project

You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it's all right. Maya Angelou
Rose gold proteas for my home

Rose Gold is fashion at the moment in South Africa, and I have been using some items from my home for some of my styled shoots. My wife has an impressive eye for styling our home and she gave me this idea of spraying the proteas I used in a shoot Rose Gold color. Proteas are seasonal at the moment so they are super cheap, so proteas feature at many weddings at the moment as wedding flowers and bouquets. And they are very pretty, and obviously our national flower.

I only made the Rose Gold flower display, with the Rose Gold leafs and pebbles in the bowl, shown in the image above. The rest of our home has been styled by my wife. 

How can I make this for myself?

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Here is what you will need:

  • a few pebbles
  • 2x Cardinal Proteas and 1x King Protea 
  • pliers and a piece of wire
  • creative pink tape (I got it from Melissa from Anthos Design Studio)
  • a vase
  • Spray Mate Metallic spray paint, rose gold color
  • news papers
Step 1. Dry the Proteas

Take some of the wire and tie it to the stems of the flowers. 

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Rose Gold Diy Project
Rose Gold DIY Project
Step 2. Hang the flowers to dry.

I hanged the flowers on our wall and went on holiday for 10 days. So I assume 2 weeks is sufficient to dry the flowers. It might take less time to dry. 

Rose Gold DIY Project

I chose to use one King Protea and a few Cardinal Proteas for a styled shoot and the reason for doing this was the cost. The King Protea was roughly R30 each and the smaller proteas ranged between R15-20 each. And I made a bouquet of ons King Protea and 5 Cardinal Proteas, so you would understand that to use only King Proteas would have been costly. These costs are obviously seasonal, and very cheap at the moment. I actually didn't know how they would dry for this project, so I used the King Protea and only two of the Cardinal Proteas. I like how the King Protea dried out, and not so much the smaller proteas.

Step 3. Paint.

I laid out some newspapers in our garage, to paint the pebbles and proteas. The newspaper just help to keep my garage from getting sprayed.

Rose Gold DIY Project

I sprayed the pebbles first, and then followed with the proteas. I didn't plan on removing the leaves from the proteas, but found the flower was much easier to spray, but also much prettier underneath the leaves than anticipated. I also didn't plan to use the leaves seperately, but they turned out so beautiful when sprayed with the rose gold color.  

Step 4. Prepare the vase.

I decided to spice up a vase which we used at our home with some creative tape I got from Anthos Design Studio during the Admired Africa #BeInspired Conference 2017. 

Rose Gold DIY Project
Rose Gold DIY Project

Step 5. Fill the Vase with stones

Just be careful not to break the vase. If you are scared you will break the vase put the flowers in the vase before you fill it with the stones. 

Step 6. Put the flowers in.

Step 8. Put the gold leaves in the vase, placing it next to the proteas' stems.

Final Product! You can style the vase as you want but I liked how it complimented the turquoise colors of our home!
Rose Gold DIY Project
Rose Gold DIY Project
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