Thursday, April 24, 2008

Spray Paint is a Girl's Best Friend


I LOVVVVVVVVE paint! My husband always has to veer me away from the "oops" paint when we go to any home improvement store. I have a need to have a supply of paint on hand at all times, just in case I get a sudden desire to do a project. That was the case with my bathroom cabinets. I've wanted to do a major renovation in this room for years, but I feel that way about the majority of my house, so I have learned to pick my renovation battles carefully. What bothered me most about this bathroom was the cabinetry. Paint was the solution! But I needed immediate gratification . . . SPRAY paint was the solution! I masked off the floor, ceiling, and walls, opened the window for ventilation, and began to spray. Within minutes my bathroom was transformed! I added new hardware that I'd purchased at the thrift store and my cabinets had an inexpensive face lift that looked like a million bucks (okay, maybe a thousand bucks).
Spray paint is a cheap designer's best friend. I use it often to transform any trash into a treasure. Here's what I've learned from my best friend--- spray
short, even strokes, keep the can at a good distance from the project, and two light coats look much, much better than one heavy runny coat. Now, I'm off to find something else to put a coat of spray paint on.

8 comments:

Jennifer Hope Longenecker said...

It's beautiful. I love to paint as well, but hubby doesn't like it so much. How do you keep the paint from scratching off? I've painted a few things and used primer, but it still scrathes off a little.

Joy said...

A good paint job requires a good prep job. If you're painting something that already has a finish, like my cabinets, you'll need to do a light sanding with a medium grit. If you use a fine or extra-fine grit you can actually close the pores of the wood so it won't accept the paint or stain as well. If you use a coarse grit it leaves scratches. You don't need to sand all the way down to the raw wood, but you do need to rough up the surface so that the paint has something to adhere to. When you use a primer, make sure it's a high adhesion type that bonds to almost any surface. And remember that most paints take a while to cure to a hard finish so be gentle with your newly painted piece for the first few weeks.
If you do have scratches on your piece, you can always strategically add a few more to give it that antiqued/distressed look---like it was meant to look that way.
I hope that helps you Jennifer.

Stephanie said...

wow !!! that looks awesome!!! i wish you'd posted a before pic too tho!!
anyhoo, I love what it looks like now~~!!

Joy said...

Stephanie,
If you take a look at the post about my china cabinet (dining room part 2) you'll see a small photo of the "before" cabinetry---we have that same lovely cheap wood all through our house.

Shirlee said...

I love paint too, I can't resist scanning the paint section in any store. I usually hand paint anything but I'm now looking at spray paint in a whole new light. There seems to be such a wide variety of colours and finishes now.
Your bathroom cabinets look very high end and modern now. It really is amazing what paint can do.
ps thanks for the tip regarding tinted primer for red. I was aware that I needed it and picked it up the other day. I couldn't resist and opened the can to brush some on the wall. Yikes! I hope no one comes over when I'm putting it on the wall. I'll have to be quick in getting the actual wall colour up.

Lincoln and Alisia said...

mom, i had no idea that you used spray paint in the bathroom. I always thought you had just painted it with regular paint. You go girl!

Jenny said...

I love the black. It is so stylish.

Shannon said...

Are you serious?!!??! This looks GREAT!!!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...



Munchkin Land Designs  





Search This Blog