Turning Coal Into Gold

Alchemy is not a myth. You really can turn base metals into gold. With a lot of gold paint, that is.

We gently disassembled our Moore's Air Tight Heater parlor stove to clean it and disconnect it from the gas line. That gave Kathy easier access to the metal tiles behind the stove, so she could finally inspect, clean, and paint them.

The metal tiles cover the curved wall directly behind the stove from floor to ceiling. Presumably they're there to reflect heat, but the stove hasn't been lit in years, probably decades, so there's no heat to reflect. The tiles have also been painted flat black, which suggests that a previous owner also felt the tiles weren't functional anymore. But black? They just look dirty and sooty.

In fact, we thought they were sooty until we took a closer look and realized that they'd been painted. There were little telltale splashes of stray black paint here and there, so we know the tiles had been painted after being installed. No problem to paint them over again, then.

Kathy chose a shiny gold color to complement the other (upcoming) colors in the room. We scrubbed all the tiles with TSP to get off any remaining dirt or grease, and then painted over the flat black with a base coat of a lighter color we had lying around. Once that was dry, the first coat of gold went on. That covered pretty well, but a second coat made it look even better. Now the black, sooty wall glows in the sunlight. The stove itself is still old and black and dirty, but at least it's got a nice backdrop now.