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Archive for the ‘Spray Paint’ Category

Chalkboard Spray Painted Mirror

Posted in Before and After, Chalkboard Paint, DIY, Home Decor Ideas, Mirrors, Spray Paint, tagged , , , , on February 8, 2012| 15 Comments »

I’m back with another spray paint before and after! This one was a lot quicker and easier than the bar cart but just as much fun since I used chalkboard spray paint on a regular mirror.

Not only did I do another spray paint project, but it is another piece from a grandmother – this time, mine! This mirror was the perfect size for the end of our cabinet that houses the oven and microwave in our kitchen.

I love the shape and the detail on the frame, but the brassy gold plastic wasn’t our style. We also already have a mirror in here (remember the one I did with corks? It is across the kitchen from this area) so we didn’t need another one. I had chalkboard paint leftover from another project so I decided to use it for this!

First, I painted two coats of primer on the whole mirror – frame and all. You can see in this picture that the mirror part is still glossy and glassy. This will go away after the second coat!

After the primer dried, I sprayed two coats of chalkboard paint on the mirror. I did the inside first because I figured it would be easier to cover up this part while spraying the frame. (Hindsight? It didn’t really matter, I still have touch-ups to do.)

I used newspaper and Green Frog tape to cover the chalkboard paint while spraying the frame with a gray spray paint. I should have been more careful about how I taped it off and need to go back to do some touch-ups on the edge but I’m trying not to stress out about it…trying…

Once the whole thing was dry, it was time to hang the new ‘mirror’ up! The trick for using an object you’ve just sprayed with chalkboard spray paint is to lightly color the whole area with chalk. This will prevent your first words from setting in and always showing on the newly painted surface.

And here she is! I love it so much. The color, the shape, the everything – it is exactly what I wanted and needed in this area. Right now, I have a partial to-do list written out. If you saw my real to-do list for our house, you might freak out. I can only look every once in a while – hah!

The one thing I wish I had included was magnetic paint. I would love to be able to hang a paper list on here as well as write in chalk but the price of magnetic paint is absolutely ridiculous! (no, you’re not seeing things. The last item on the list is to have a glass of wine. This is a must after doing these projects!)

Here is a final look at the before and after of this project. I love that something like an inexpensive mirror can turn into a fancy looking chalkboard! Let me know if you’ve ever tried something like this; I would love to see it.

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DIY Gallery Wall

Posted in DIY, I heart Goodwill, Living Room, Picture Fun, Spray Paint, tagged , , , on November 23, 2011| 5 Comments »

I am loving my newest DIY project – our gallery wall! It started with collecting ideas and plans and dreams for this wall and also the desire to hide our ugly doorbell cover without paying to get a new one…

Young House Love’s gallery wall was everything I’ve always wanted and more in a wall like this. There are photographs, special memories, color and all housed in white frames with white mats! I was obsessed and determined to make this for our house.

This is the wall I wanted to tackle. It is in the hallway and faces Conner’s living room. To the left is the main living room and to the right is the kitchen. While I LOVE this picture and awesome piece of OSU memorabilia, it needed to move into the ‘man’ living room and out of the main part of the house. The brown and linen doorbell cover was totally 80’s and needed a little face lift. Conner completely agreed so it was time to go to work!

When I started this project, I knew I did not want to pay for frames that were already white and did not want them all to be the same style. It took a couple of weeks and several trips to Goodwill and other thrift stores, but this is the compilation of frames I came up with. I played with the layout and just started nailing them in. I know, the horror! I didn’t measure, I didn’t use templates taped to the wall first, I just went with it. And I LOVE it!

There was some good and bad with the collecting of frames including this little gem I found at a local thrift store. Don’t try adjusting your screen – what you see is exactly what it is. A wooden frame (that I actually really liked, which is why I splurged and paid the $2 for it) with a mirror covered with a snow scene inside of it. Yeah, I know. Who thought this was a good idea and who originally had this hanging as-is in his/her house? I would love to have a drink with that person and find out why this was a good purchase.

Here’s how the wall looks now!! Love, love, love. It gives this little area so much personality and will be so fun to change as I get bored with it.

I took the glass (and/or snowy covered mirror) out of each frame and then used several coats of white spray paint to make them all uniform. Unfortunately, several of the frames either didn’t come with glass or the piece broke while I was trying to take it out. Have no fear – a local glass shop cut me new pieces for so cheap!

I tried to use pieces of fabric and photos that have meaning to us. I love the navy fabric in the top frame and it was the first sample I got for this house so I used that and the house in the picture next to it is our first house! (I know, collective “awwwww.”)

The picture in the wood frame is so much better than the previous mirror, right? That’s our wedding day and one of my most favorite pictures from that day. The chevron pattern above it is actually a wedding shower invitation we got! I loved the pattern and the color so I held on to it. Who knew it would be so perfect in this spot?

As you can see from the wood frame, my idea to use card stock instead of having mats cut for the pictures wasn’t the best idea. The paper is bending and the photos don’t look straight anymore. I think this will be the most expensive part of the project but it will make everything look so much better and more professional. I don’t want my DIY projects to look DIY.

Here’s another quick look at our before. I still need to change the light switch plate to pure white and the walls need to be painted but if I have to paint another wall, I might scream and hiring painters is out of the question right now.

But here is the after and I don’t even notice the yellow-beige wall color anymore! I am so happy with how this turned out and can’t wait to see how we change and evolve this wall. I want to find a couple little ‘things’ to fill in two of the larger gaps between frames but I want to find quirky and fun accents to accessorize them. This was so fun for me, I’m ready to do another wall!

Have you tried out the gallery wall thing yet? I would love to see what yours looks like and how you did it!

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Crafty Pumpkins

Posted in Fall Decorating, Outdoor Living Space, Paint, Spray Paint on October 17, 2011|

Before I start, thanks for the sweet emails and comments from the last post. I was very overwhelmed by news I had received from several friends and needed to put the breaks on doing too much. I put a lot of pressure on myself to be a part of as much as possible and with the blog especially, try to live up to someone else’s standards. I took a big breath and remembered this blog is purely fun for me. I’m not paid to do it and I can’t worry about how much I’m posting, what I’m posting and how many followers I’m gaining/losing. Thanks to each of you for reading and leaving sweet notes – this used to be something that only my parents read!

On to the topic at hand – I finally painted some pumpkins!! I really think this year has been the most fun fall I’ve had post-college. (You really can’t beat the fall season in Stillwater – Homecoming and Freshman Follies were big deals in my life and I loved it all so much!) I love how my pumpkins turned out, especially my two OSU pumpkins outside.

I printed out an image of our logo but ended up just winging it and free-handing the letters. I used black on the letters, orange surrounding it and a silver border that was so much easier to paint with the back of a paintbrush! This took about 20 minutes total and I love how it looks!

I was stumped for what I wanted to do for pumpkin #2 so I went with the easy saying of Go Pokes! This was a total freehand as well and only took about 10 minutes. I used acrylic paint I had on hand from previous projects and it worked out perfectly. A coat of glossy clear spray paint was applied after I painted to protect the pumpkins from the weather and hopefully get them to last a little longer than expected.

Inside, I tried to do our monogram. I’m not completely satisfied with how it turned out but I’m going with it for now! I spray painted the pumpkin with copper paint and then free-handed our initials in white. I used a pen to draw it out first and even with four coats of white, you could see the pen underneath. I used a black Sharpie to outline the letters and draw an inside line to hopefully detract from the pen showing through. And yes – this is absolutely why there is only one picture of this little vignette – hah!

See ya later, alligators! I’ve got several projects on the brain so I’ll be back when I’m ready to showcase one of them.

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