Syroco Revamped

Syroco or faux rococo, as Mr. Rubbish accurately calls it (he did take one interior design class in college), is a brand of vintage, wall decor made in the 1960's. The decorative pieces from the 60's were made of hard, scrolling plastic, but were made to look like carved wood. Maybe I am wrong about this, but I am pretty sure all the Syroco pieces from the 60's are gold color. I have picked up quite a few Syroco shelves and mirrors at yard sales and I love how they look when painted - it is hard to tell they are plastic with a pretty coat of paint.


Above is a photo of a Syroco mirror I recently repainted and sold at Blessings Boutique. It was a coppery gold when I bought it at a garage sale for only $2 (oops, I hate it when I forget to take a before photo). I painted it first with Bullseye Primer and then chose a bright, robin's egg blue acrylic paint as the final coat. After the paint dried, I glazed it with Ralph Lauren's glaze in smoke color. I used a brush to paint on the glaze and a damp rag to wipe off most of it. This was the first time I tried the glaze and I like how it made the details of the mirror pop out while giving it an aged patina. The last thing I did was rub gold Rub 'n Buff over the raised edges to make the detailing stand out more. This one sold quickly at the shop!

I got another Syroco mirror from my sister when she moved to a new house (yes, this is the large mirror we had to cram into the little car, amongst all of the other junk, on our roadtrip back from Utah).




I painted this one a creamy white and then sanded it to create a slightly shabby look.