Gold gives a unique luxurious impression and therefore golden objects are often desired. Since gold is an expensive metal, due to its rarity, it is not feasible to produce objects made of gold at reasonable prices. In this study, we have developed a simple representation method that makes real objects appear to be made of gold using projection mapping technology. In recent years, this technology has been extensively explored, mainly in the field of entertainment. Most of these studies were focused on technologies where a target image was superimposed onto an object. Our method, unlike the conventional approach, does not project a target gold image but simply projects a solid color onto an object, thereby giving the perception that the object is made of gold. We have conducted two psychophysical experiments to substantiate our representation method, using stimuli having the same color. Our results indicate that objects were more easily perceived as golden objects when a solid color was projected onto black objects rather than white objects. Furthermore, a few samples were perceived as metals, even though they were actually paper or fabric. These results suggest that when superimposing a solid color onto an object, a change in material type is perceived along with the change of its color. Moreover, we analyzed the relationship between psychophysical evaluations on the perception of projected gold objects and the physical properties of the materials. The results show that the average and the standard deviation of reflectance generated by black objects can be considered factors that affect the perception of a gold-like color. (c) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.