So I was perusing Jonathan Adler’s website recently, looking at all the beautiful dreamy offerings that would entail remortgaging to afford and came across a set of fabulous black and gold malachite style coasters. At £78 for the set of four, they are definitely an investment sort of item and one that I’m going to guess that not many of us can just go out and buy on a whim. I mean, I wouldn’t think twice about spending that sort of money on maybe a light fixture or a splurging on a set of beautiful cutlery but for 4 coasters? Erm. Nope.
Well, I knew as soon as I saw them that I could probably DIY them for a lot less. In the end, this whole DIY cost me £4. I had most of what I needed already to hand but even if you were buying everything from scratch, you are still looking at saving a whole heap of money and you’ll have the materials to do other things with them too (I mean, who doesn’t need some black spray paint?).
So here’s my version…
And here are the ones on Jonathan Adler’s website…
Pretty difficult to tell the difference, right? The only real difference is that mine are a bit larger than the originals because I just wanted to be able to use them around the house and not necessarily as coasters per se, but if you have some really small ceramic plates closer to the original size, well, you can certainly do that. In fact, you can use whatever size you wanted for these.
Now let me assure you these are EASY to do. It took me a couple of hours on a sunny afternoon and most of that was just waiting for paint to dry. The actual design took about an hour to do all four plates. And ya know, it was actually kind of therapeutic.
Please note, these are NOT safe for food given the products I used to create them. If you want food-safe ones, please do your research on the types of products you’ll need to create this. They are also not dishwasher safe although you can hand-wash them.
Here’s what you’ll need…
- 4 plain small plates (I got mine at my local supermarket for £1 each but really you can use anything similar)
- Black Satin Spay Paint
*
- Surface Primer Spray
* (this one is similar to what I used)
- Clear Coat Gloss Spray* (this one is similar to what I used)
- Gold Sharpie Fine Metallic Permanent Marker Pen
*
* denotes affiliate link. You don’t pay any more but I earn a few pennies on every purchase to buy some pretties! Win win!
And here’s how it’s done…
Make sure you protect your surfaces when spraying and use any spray paints in a well-ventilated area or even better, outside.
Lightly spray your plates with the primer and allow to dry.
Follow this with a light coat of black spray paint keeping the can about 8-10″ away from each plate and moving your arm continously left to right to prevent drips. Check the spray paint can to see how long to leave between each coat and don’t be tempted to overload the paint – it’s better to do a few light coats than one heavy one! Once that coat is dry, spray a second time.
Once the second coat is completely dry, it’s time to pull out your gold sharpie. I found it was easier to start with a few circles and just start drawing concentric lines.
I had the website open while I was working but it was more to give me an idea of how large my circles should be to start off with and from there, I sort of just winged it.
There is so much margin here – you almost can’t mess this up. You don’t want your lines to be too evenly spaced so it makes it easier when they don’t need to be perfect. Leave some blank space and fill in some others in a few areas to give it a more natural look.
When you are done with the plates, leave to dry and then coat with a spray of protective clear coat. This will prevent any scratching and allow you to wash them by hand if required. Again, these aren’t food safe, pretty as they are!
And that’s it! In the end, I was pretty pleased with how quick, cheap and easy it was to do – my favourite kind of DIY! Your turn now… what do you think of my Jonathan Adler knock off? Is this something you would try?
This is one damn fine knockoff! I love Jonathan Adler things but they are very spendy. This looks very doable and useful – thank you!!
You are some kind of mad genius wizzard.
Loving this!! You actually cant tell the difference!! More knock offs please ;-)
That’s a very creative and interesting idea! I’m more into essential oils, but you’ve given me an idea on how to revive some old things in my house. Thanks and great work Kimberly :)
Omg, this looks so close to the original! When I open my newsletter I was taken back at how perfect they were! ❤️
Wow! These are great. And think, you could do this with a small tray, too. Thank you!
Another fab knock-off I just love when I see another knock-off post in my inbox from you. I thought the gold part was going to be quite tricky using a special design tool etc. so I was pleasantly surprised with your tips here. I’m thinking even I could do this. Well try this anyhow. Thanks Again:-)
Marie
Super cute! I love them K :) xoxo
Awesome! It is hard to tell JA’s from yours. Plus, this gave me a great idea…now to gather supplies.
Amazing! I think most of us could give this one a go. x
Wow. Kimberly, you clever girl. Hard to tell the difference. They look great!
Wow, that’s brilliant and the best DIY knock-off I’ve seen in ages! It’s incredibly difficult to tell them apart. Fantastic idea and it most definitely appeals to my love of doodling.
‘Mazeballs!! You’re one clever lady. I defo want to try this myself!x
Ha – what can I say. Totally brilliant and I’m going to def have a go at making these. Thanks for sharing. Love a bit of JA but haven’t got the budget. You’re a star. xx
These look amazing – you’d be hard pushed to tell them apart from the originals!! Love this – they look fantastic! Love your styling in the pictures too. xx
SO so good! You know I’m a huge JA fan. They turned out fabulous. I almost fell of my chair when he made my day and commented on my IG pic the other day. :) Had to throw this in here LOL, not that it matters at all. Your plates are awesome!
Wow! What a great project and so easy to do. I seriously can’t tell them apart. But sssshhh don’t tell Jonathan.
So, so cool! I love that you’ve come up with this idea as the price for the originals is ridiculous. Very inspired :-) xo
You’ve just made my day, they look brilliant, i love them, and i’m going to have a go at this. I love this type of post thanks Kimberly xxx
Brilliant, they’ll be offering you a job at JA very soon ??
I honestly cannot tell the difference between your version and JA’s version! Amazing!! Love the way you’ve styled them in different ways too. I’ll never look at plain white plates the same way again! Clever lady :-)
ahhhhh these look fab – you are such a clever lady and talented at that ;) xxx
AHHHHH! These are so amazing! I’m obsessed! And ashamed to be so behind on my blog reading – I can’t believe I missed these!!!
Absolutely gorgeous Kim!!!