The 411 on spray paint

I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! I made a little bit of progress on the kitchen, but otherwise we just enjoyed having hubby home for four days straight!
School’s out for summer!!  ;) Whoohoo!
If you’ve read this blog for 2.1 seconds, you know how much I luuurve spray paint. In my humble opinion, there is no cheaper way to transform accessories and furniture.
And floor vents.
And roman blinds.
And plates.
Just about anything folks. Believe you me.  :)
Today I worked on a couple of spray paint projects for the kitchen that I wanted to show you. And while I was at it, I figured I would answer some of your most often asked spray paint questions.
I’ve had this large tray from Goodwill forever – almost ten years I think?:

I sprayed it in black spray paint, then later I added a vinyl monogram to it. Since I am redoing the kitchen and lightening things up a bit, I thought I would give it a little spray paint update!
I took off most of the vinyl but left just a bit, then sprayed it in an apple green spray paint (from Home Depot). After it dried, I peeled the vinyl off and left the black underneath:

It will most likely not stay as is -- it’s very very apple, and the coverage isn’t great, so I may to something to tone it down a bit. :) Maybe some distressing? We will see! I’m rearranging the tops of the cabs, but for now it sits next to a clearanced Pottery Barn bird cage – isn’t that adorable?
Which brings me to one of the FAQ spray paint questions:
Q:  Which brand/type of spray paint works best?
A:  I use black and white dollar spray paint (from various places – WalMart, Home Depot, Meijer, Lowe’s) all the time and it works great! Usually it just comes in glossy and matte, (shiny and not shiny) and it doesn’t cover quite as well as the more expensive stuff.
If you are working on something that already has a base coat, or something small, the cheap stuff will work just fine. If it’s furniture, plastic, outdoor equipment, etc. – use the nicer paint made for that.
Because I’m involved in the Amex spring home makeover initiative (yippeee!), I am redoing our kitchen with Membership Reward Points – and wooeee, it’s been fun! (I’ll give you another update later this week!) Today I got a new chandelier for over the kitchen table.
I really loved our old light, (which was a $30 Lowe’s score!), but I had hung it just a bit high, and it always felt just a teeny bit small for the table:

So today I was able to purchase a purdy new fixture for the space:
As you can see, it came in a brushed nickel finish, and I was thisclose to keeping it that way, I liked it so much! But when I held it up over the table, it disappeared a bit with that finish. I wanted it to have some visual substance up there, so my ORB spray paint was to the rescue!
**I have no idea what “visual substance” means. But it sounded good. ;)
I taped off the lights, then hung the fixture from a hook out in the garage (I took down hubby’s lawn trimmer to do so) and then used nails to secure an old sheet on the wall behind it.
Which brings me to a couple more questions I get a lot:
Q:  Where do you spray paint in the different seasons?
A:  In the spring/summer/fall that’s easy – usually in the backyard or on the deck. Usually I can be found holding an item out at arm’s length, over the edge of the deck, spraying away. Then I’ll just lay it on the railing to dry.
I keep old sheets around that I use as drop clothes when I paint, but most often I use them on the garage floor to spray paint. A few many, many times hubby has come home to a slew of items drying on his side of the garage floor. Which I know thrills him to no end.  ;)
In the winter, I have been known to spray paint in the basement – but I do quick, light sprays, then leave immediately. Usually anymore, I do my winter painting in the garage.
Q:  Do I need to prep my surfaces for spray paint?
A:  Other than thoroughly cleaning an item, honestly I don’t prep much. :) If it’s bare wood, a spray primer is a really good idea. You’ll prime the surface and use way less spray paint in the end.
On wood items, sometimes I will do a light sanding to prepare the surface – but most of the time I don’t. On metal, I usually just spray directly on the surface, but if it’s something that will get a lot of handling, I definitely prime it first. I have sprayed many metal lamps and did not prime because (the bases) don’t get touched much.
Same goes for light fixtures – I mean, how often do you touch them? At least around here, it’s not much. :)
So for the kitchen fixture, I didn’t prime. I did light, quick sprays and worked my way around the light as it hung. I LOVE the way it turned out!:

It’s got loverly, graceful lines:
Swoon! (Ignore the pantry door in front of the window!) Now the light hangs about 29 inches above the table instead of 31 (I know, but I notice.) And it’s 23 inches wide instead of 18 inches – which fills in that area much better.
Visual substance and all.  ;)
I’m thinking of an update for the shades – you know I can’t leave well enough alone!
The Krylon oil rubbed bronze paint I used dried super fast, even out in the freaking-insane-I’m-sweating-just-standing-here-heat we had today, but you need to be sure to let anything you spray paint cure (dry) long enough before you handle it.
Because I’m insanely impatient, I waited till this fixture was dry to the touch and then started installing. Because of that, there were a few little scratches here and there after I got it up.
I just threw the sheet over the kitchen table and sprayed little touch ups. I don’t recommend doing this unless you really have yours spaces covered. But I am me and me is crayyyyzay! :)
So if your project doesn’t go just right, what do you do?
Q:  How do I fix bubbles/crackling/drips/oopsies?
A: Imperfections usually mean one of two things – either you didn’t prep properly so the paint isn’t adhering well, or you are spraying too much, too fast. Drips always mean you’ve used too much. To correct those, wipe them off immediately if you can, then spray over. If you notice them later, sand it down lightly and spray again.
Same goes for crackling. Whenever I see that it means I haven’t prepped well. Sometimes I’ve noticed crackles when I’m using spray paint that has been in the heat or the item I’m spraying has been in the heat.
Crackle can be harder to cover – so sand down as much as possible and spray again.
If you follow these tips, you should get a finished product that will last you for years!:

You can transform just about anything with a can of spray paint! For a few bucks you can spray outdoor furniture, plastic stuff, furniture (I usually only recommend spray paint for smaller pieces – otherwise it gets expensive!), baskets – whatever!
Light fixtures are one of my favorite items to use spray paint on – you can make a builder grade shiny brass light look fantabulous with a $6 can of spray paint!
And anymore your color choices are endless -- the metallic options are great too. You know how I love the ORB, but I also used brushed nickel all over the Bub’s big boy room and I LOVED it:

The possibilities are truly endless – I’ve seen some of the most outdated, hideous “befores” become some amazing, up-to-date afters with just five minutes with a spray paint can. :)
Try it out and I swear you’ll be hooked!
Any of you seasoned spray painters got a great spray paint project you want to share? Link it up in the comments!
Any other questions? I’ll answer them in this post or in the comments throughout this week.
Thank you to this week’s sponsor!:

How I accessorize.

ACK! I'm so thrilled at your response about my centerpiece! Yippee, I'm so glad you love it as much as I do! :) I love that WalMart and Target are going to sell out of mirrors this weekend. ;)

Awhile back when I showed you my Ballard Designs shelves, I promised to show you how I accessorize. I struggle with filling spaces with stuff. I usually like the end result, but it takes much running around/fluffing/rearranging. There are a few basics I know work when accessorizing that I wanted to share with you. Cause you are my Squee-zays.

You may have heard the odd number suggestion -- that is using one, three, five, seven, etc. of items. For some reason it just appeals more to the eye. That's what "they" say anyway. Sometimes I listen to "they," sometimes I tell them to shut it. I happen to agree on this one:
My homemade sofa table in our living room is our living room is one arrangement I really like. You'll notice the three finials (Goodwill/Hob Lob finds, spray painted black). I like the little cabinet in the middle because it gives the table something weighty to hold it's own in the middle.

Balance is something else I think helps big time -- when you have something tall on one side, even it out with something tall on the other:
The lamp on the left is up on books to mimic the tall rattan vase to the right of the sofa (that you can't really see here) and balance that area.

The same goes for shapes. The two candlesticks are the same shape as the finials and balance them out on the other side. The large square print on the right needed something to balance it out, but so I used a smaller ceramic square on the left:

Let's see if I can say "balance" one more time. Umkay...balance. I also lurrrrve easels -- I use them everywhere to bring items up just a bit higher.

I love how the Ballard shelves look right now, but it was a process. This was the start:

I heart leaning frames against each other. I do it all over the place. I knew I wanted that look here, but the mismatched frames weren't doing it for me. The balance (No. 324) on the top shelf was not right, so I moved on to this:

I loved my cut up art much better than the frames -- much simpler but a much bigger impact than the frames. Something was bugging me though -- you may notice, the left side of both shelves were both high. You want the eye to travel up and down when it looks at something like shelves. The way it was, the eye started up and went down on both levels. So I simply flipped everything on the bottom shelf:

My next tip -- use BOOKS! They are FAR-REE!! Take the covers off, and stack em! But don't stack em on the same side of each shelf!! Again, too much weight over on the right -- you KNOW...the BALANCE is all off. Gah.

I put the books on the top shelf under the pitcher instead, and propped up the "art" with an easel:

Add a few sprinkles of fall-y stuff, and you're golden. Yesssssss...

In our office, I have a few treasured items I want to have out, but not a lot of space to put them. One of the shelves on this bookcase is busier than I like, but I tried to even (Ha! I didn't say balance! Dang, yes I did!!) it out by making the other shelves simpler:

Books are key, stacked on each other or upright. Love me some stacked books. Hee. My bookshelf is stacked. Totally.

The large frame has an easel back, and if you don't have room for it to stand up, just lean it! I probably wouldn't put some of these accessories in any other room, just because they wouldn't go. This room is a tad bit more eclectic, so it works. (At least I think it does.)

All it took to make me completely happy was to run the cord down the back of the shelves so the horrible thing was out of my sight:

Whew.

Umkay, after explaining all of this, it sure does sound like all these steps go through my head every time, like some freaky OCD chick, and they so do not. OK, I'm lying, they totally do. But in the span of, like, five seconds, not the 20 minutes it took to write this all down. ;)

One more tip -- take a pic! (Anyone know the insanely annoying cute show that is from?) Take a picture of your space, and it will give you a different outlook on it. I don't know why, but you notice things in a picture you wouldn't otherwise.

To reward all you Squeezies who stayed with me through all of this rambling, I've got a saahweet little giveaway for you! I really mean it, it's little, but saaahweet.

These little white Dollar Store pumpkins were all the rage last fall! I found some a few weeks ago and had to pick up a couple for one of you!

Remembering my "rule of threes" -- I went back for a third this week and they were GONE! Already!! I bet could sell these things for like, FOUR DOLLARS on eBay right now peeps -- they are a hot commodity.

When I went back, I noticed the fun black crows I had grabbed for myself weeks before were pretty much gone too, so I grabbed one for you! He's a little worse for the wear, but he's got one good side:

The little leaf spreaders were at the dollar spot at Tar-jay the other day, and I couldn't resist them (for you).

Just leave a comment here this weekend (till 8 p.m. Eastern on Sunday!) and I'll announce the winner Sunday night! Have a great one!

Inspired by Ballard Designs again!

So you remember this cutie little table I picked up made my sister get from the neighbor's trash? Yeah, she still takes a lot of credit for this beaut:
I mentioned then I had a Ballard project in mind for above this table to replace the art I had on the wall. I saw these in the catalog the day before I finished up that table and knew they MUST BE MINE:I knew as soon as I saw them they would be perfect for that wall, and I also knew they would be easy and cheap to do on my own. I like easy and cheap.

I've had the materials for this project for ohhh...ummm...a MONTH, maybe more? And then I saw Traci had done them as well and that was the inspiration I needed to get my booty movin'.

I started with my main materials -- I used eight inch wide boards and chair rail for the trim around the shelf:
My table is only two feet wide, so I wanted them to be a bit smaller and got them cut at 19" long. The piece of wood was less than $4.

I started measuring and cutting the trim to figure out the cuts: At first I was using my miter box, and then remembered I AM WOMAN and went right for the compound miter saw instead. Either way works!

The next step was to yell a bit, (maybe) cuss a little, and stomp my feet because I measured wrong and ended up running out of my trim. Instead of another trip to Lowe's (it was nap time so I was stuck anyway), I used some trim I had already purchased for another project.

You have to cut the trim at a 45 degree angle so they meet up at the corners. I used my nail gun to attach them but you can easily use finishing nails:

Isn't that trim GORG?

When done, this is what you'll get:

I got my corbels from Home Depot -- they have a much better selection than Lowe's. I got my corbels for the kitchen island from there too.

To install them, I measured where I wanted them each to go underneath:

Then used heavy duty glue to put them on:

I popped in a few nails to secure them while the glue set, but again, this is not necessary.

I chose big, fat corbels cause I like 'em big. I like 'em chunky. (Just like Rebecca does. Oh yeah.)

Then I used my one dollar glossy black spray paint and sprayed them within an inch of their lives:

It took me a whole day to accessorize them to my liking but I think I'm finally happy:

WAIT.

Now I'm happy:
The lamp cord is (mostly) covered. I can breathe.

We don't have a ton of surfaces for accessories -- I mean, I have plenty, but I always wanted something else to spruce up, especially during the holidays. These will be so fun to experiment with!

Because I got the big and chunky corbels ($9 each) the whole project was about $48. If you use smaller corbels, you could get this done for less than $40 easy. Oh yeah, did I mention Ballard's version is $80 for ONE of the smallest shelves? Ummmmkay.

Accessorizing is something I struggle with -- it takes me awhile to get the tchotchkes how I want them. Later this weekend I'll show you the process I went through with these shelves and a few tricks I've learned along the way.

Oh yeah, and next week, to celebrate my one meeeeeeeeeeeeellionth "hit" I'm going to share everything I have learned about blogging. I get so many questions asking for advice and I think this will be a helpful post. To celebrate, I have a small giveaway for one of you as well. :)

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Update! Traci gave a great tutorial here! And Jen did one here too!! FAB! I love seeing all these miter boxes out there!!

What have I done in a year?

Well, I know. Plenty. But there are certain projects I have been meaning to tackle for at least a year now, and I haven't yet. Some are because they cost more than I want to spend, most I blame on my complete and utter inability to focus on one project at a time.

First, to get what I'm saying here, you need to go read this post if you haven't already -- I don't heart you. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Taps fingers.

Looks at watch.

Umkay, done? So I have a serious aversion to the brass in our house. I really, really do not like it, not at all. Even so, I have gotten rid of very little brass around here.

These are still around:
And a couple of these:
They are high, so nobody sees them. That's what I keep telling myself.

I have spray painted these though:

I figured out a while ago you can just pop them off, but we do like having them there:
YES I know they look just like the vents, and you can barely see them. I know that now, I didn't realize when I was spray painting them. Gah. And I didn't use high heat spray paint, (it's oil-rubbed bronze) so we may have take them off when we light the fireplaces anyway. I was just so anxious to get rid of some of the BRASS.

I spray painted some of these too:

And now they look like this:
LURVE!

I'm a freakedy freak and hated the light in our master closet. It was boring and didn't put out much light.
So I did replace that and love it!It was less than $30, not a bad price to pay to actually see our clothing.

Not ONE of these has been changed out:

This is my final frontier -- I hear it's fairly easy to change out faucets but I haven't attempted it myself. But I will. Oh yes. I will.

I showed you this cutie little desk almost a year ago:

I got it at a barn sale and it was only $15! It only took ten months (TEN MONTHS) but I finally redid it. I sanded it down and spray painted the whole thing with the extra paint I used on our deck planters:

I hope to use this color in his big boy room, so eventually the desk will be in there. I added his name to the back of the chair with stickers (that blur is his name) and I am just thrilled with how it all turned out:

LOVE it!! I don't think it's antique but it is nice and used (maybe from the sixties?) I love all the dents and marks in it:Best part is our son really uses it! :)

You may remember how excited I was about this...uhhhh...thing last fall:

I can't even tell you how excited I was to get it! I had such high hopes. Uhhhh...let's just say it was a big, huge, massive FAIL. Yikes. I mean, it was bad. I ended up tossing the whole thing. Even the lights didn't work.

They can't all go right, you know?

A garage decrapification reveal.

First of all, I forgot to mention I hit 200 posts on Monday! Hooty hoo!

Anyway, this isn't the prettiest of my projects, and I know I've hyped it up just a smidge. It's really not that fantabulous, but it has made a HUGE difference in our lives. The stress level when we walk or drive into garage has decreased significantly.

Let's start with the most fun area -- the spot where we both had to do some gymnastics to get around every day:

Let's discuss, shall we? Brand new faux tree from Goodwill, purchased nine months ago? Check. Dirty cups from the car? Check. Pretty white Target basket from Goodwill getting grossified? Check. Neck pillow from my last flight eight months ago? Check.

Niiiice.

This is it now:

What was hidden in the picture above was a massive cardboard box we use for paper recycling. I thought it would be brilliant to save it for this purpose, until the first time I tried to get it in the car to take to the recycling place. Ummmm...it was at least 50 pounds, I'm not even kidding. So now, we've downsized to a cheap trash can. I leave this here so before I walk in the house, (most of the time,) I can open everything, shred and toss paper right in. Once a week I take it to the bin. Awesome.

The storage bin was from the deck -- I was going to take it to Goodwill, but then I realized how dumb that would be when it would be perfect for the garage. It holds all the outdoor furniture covers, all of our gardening gloves (I believe I found 12 pairs, um kay...) and a few other garden jobbies.

The ladder used to be around the corner, but I realized I use it all. the. time. So why not have it right by the door, so I can grab it easily? The little frame with hooks holding the garden tools was a gift I painted black and it's perfect! The $2.99 metal vase was a Goodwill find and holds umbrellas and wet vac tools. (OH yes, I spray painted it.)

Ahhhh...loverly...

We used to have all three of our garbage bins over to the right in the corner, but they were such a pain to get to, and it made it a bit tight for hubby's SUV. I moved the bins, moved the shelves down a bit, and added shelves we had in another spot, so everything we could possibly need is in ONE spot:

The shelves hold lawn stuff/bug stuff/bird seed/barbecue stuff, the list is endless. I made each shelf a "category." I think I may even label them so hubby keeps this organized. If he doesn't, he's goin' down...

I used dollar store bins to group all the small stuff:

Would you like to know how many bug spray products I found? Lessee...approximately eight? Yes, I think that's right. Do I need to mention we never use bug spray, like, EVER?

I kind of hate that this still looks like a mess, even though it's not. It will have to do until we can spring for some fancy schmacy cabinets:

This little dude is awesome, and I highly recommend it. It was in another corner we couldn't even get to, and now it's so easy to access. It holds all of the tools with a handle:

Oh, and hubby kept buying fertilizer when we had bags and bags we didn't know about. So now we have about four to use up. Told you you waste money when you aren't organized! We sure did.

To the right of this area used to look like this:

And now it's this:
We had the hooks in the wall for our huge long ladder, but our friends use it at their house more than we do, so they keep it. Kind of a please-adopt-it-it's-so-huge-you-can-keep-it kind of deal. So I just put a few more hooks up and hung everything I possibly could to get it out of the way. We moved the lawn mower over to this spot so hubs can get it out without pulling out the car. This is AWESOME.

The next part is to the left of the now black door (see previous post):

You could seriously not walk in here -- it was disgusting that we had about 120 square feet of space that was basically unusable. Nuts! (See my sewing table? Looks much better inside.)

Now it looks like this:

I moved the peg board from another spot, spray painted it for fun, and rearranged everything to work better. Otherwise, it was just a serious example of decrapification.

Oh no, you sillies. This is a fraction of my tools. Most of them are in the basement -- that's coming soon. :)

Just to the left of this area used to look like this:

THAT is what I opened my car door into every. single. day. THAT is why I have scratches all over my car door. You know I love my molding people. I keep all my scraps just in case. The just in case scenario was a little out of control, so I got rid of about half of it, moved the peg board, and now it looks like this:

Much easier access to the trash, which is very important you know. Removing the pegboard made a huge difference:

Ahhh yes, I can breathe. It is lovely, isn't it?

I also did a good cleaning of everything -- used the wet vac to get up in the corners to get all the webs. (Grody.) Look at these corners!:GORG!

I spent very little money -- $20 on a ball holder and less than five on a few more of these hooks:

They are great and work for almost anything. They are only $1.47 each. I spent about ten bucks on trash bins for my molding and the recycled paper. All told, to completely redo the garage and organize it, I spent less than $40. Serious. I used what we had and moved it around to work better.

The first day I spent about three hours on it and got it looking really, really good. I just stuck with it and didn't stop. All together, including painting the door and steps, I spent about six or seven hours in here total.

Take the kids to grandmas, to a friend's or now you can do it when they are at school -- and knock it out in a day! If you have two people working you could get it down in half the time! I can't even tell you how relaxing it is to drive in now:

There are a few things we'd still like to do -- finish the floors for one. We are trying to determine if it's worthwhile to insulate and drywall the exterior walls. Does anyone know about this? Does it help with the heating and cooling of the rest of the house? And I would love to paint at least the door wall (Aimee!) but the ceilings are 12 feet up in here and that will be a huge job. It will take primer and paint and I have about a mile long list ahead of that one. ;)

I filled all three of our large garbage bins with CRAP during this process, plus more. It felt sooooo good people. This was all spurred on by our deck redo, so now we'll have space to put most of the outdoor furniture in the winter, which makes us feel better about that investment.

Go for it this weekend, you won't regret it!!