Time for a spring tune-up!

I rescued some chairs from someone's garbage. Well, I couldn't have done it without hubby... I saw them in a trash pile, but I drive a Chevy Cobalt. They weren't fitting in that! So I drove home, grabbed hubby and his van and drove back (luckily, it was in my neighborhood).  Hubby used all his muscle to pick them up and put them in the back of the van. But... the hatch wouldn't close. And they weren't stable. So he sat in the back hanging on to them for dear life while I drove verrrrry slowly home. (He tolerates my spray paint addiction very well.) They were originally white and were very rusted. I sanded them and spray painted them black. And now we have patio chairs that perfectly match our patio table!

 

But last year, in the fall, they took a tumble across our cement patio in a storm. Painted surfaces do not like being scraped against cement : (

  

Five minutes with a can of black spray paint fixed that, though!

 

More spray painted decor for the "guest room"

 

Still working on the "guest room" -- aka daughter number 1's bedroom! This butterfly was originally a brown/rust color. It's meant for outdoor use, but I liked it in the house. At some point, it ended up in my daughter's room. I talked about painting it, but never got around to it. It was hanging on a different wall in her room, but when she decorated her apartment earlier this year, she took some things of the walls. I filled in a blank spot with the butterfly. It filled the spot. But didn't pop. So I spraypainted it the same green as the bike frame. Now it's perfect!

 

My next big spray paint project

 

I've actually spray painted this desk twice already! I found it for $5 years ago at a garage sale. It belonged to daughter number 2. I painted it to match her room and then repainted it when we redecorated. As you can probably tell, I embellished it with butterflies and flowers. You can see I've already scraped them off -- with my homemade cleaner and a putty knife, they came right off!

My plan is to spray paint it silver! And it's for, you guessed it - the "guest" room (aka: daughter number 1's room). Lately, I've been breaking out of the neutral box I'd painted myself into and I'm loving it! And I think the silver will look great with the mostly contemporary style I've been doing in there. This will be used as a nightstand. It fits the space on one side of the bed perfectly.

My favorite brand of spray praint

 

I love spray paint! It's easy to use, there's no messy clean up, and it's relatively inexpensive. But I've found that not all spray paints are created equal. I love a good generic product as much as the next guy, but sometimes you need to go for a specific brand. My favorite spray paint is Krylon (I'm not being paid to say that - I really do love it). Even when I try something else, I find myself going back to Krylon. The nozzle is easy to use, it covers well, doesn't drip (unless I get too heavy-handed with the spraying), and is available in places like Walmart. To make it ever better, I just saw a large display of Krylon spray paint in Walmart with lots of new, bright colors! (I'll be honest, I nearly peed my pants : ) Nothing like spray paint color options to get me excited.) Do you have a favorite brand of spray paint?

Old frame looks new again with some spray paint

OK, I'm mad at myself because I forgot to take a "before" photo of this project! But the frame was black. Can you picture that?

 

I love this picture frame - and the pix of my cute lil' munchkins in it - but after I redecorated the room it was in I didn't really have a place for it. So it's been in storage : ( Now that Daughter #1 is in her second year of college and has her own apartment, I've slowly been converting her room into a guest room. Since I don't want to do a total overhaul and leave her feeling like she's been kicked out, I've been working with the color scheme already in place. Which is purple! (I'm sure you can guess that is her favorite color.) I like green with purple, though - anybody with me? So I've been working on adding a few green touches. When I "shopped" my storage area for inspiration, I found this not-quite-forgotten frame. I knew with a little spray paint it'd be perfect in that room! And to make it even more perfect, I already had the spray paint on hand. I'd like to say I gave it a quick coat of spray paint and immediately added it to the room, but that would be a lie. The key to spray painting is thin coats. That's fine - most projects are still relatively quick. But this frame had so many nooks and crannies to get into that it took some time - I didn't want blobs and streaks of paint ruining it. One of the great features of spray paint is the smooth, factory-like finish you can achieve. So I worked on it off and on all day, actually. But I love the finished look! And it IS perfect in the room (watch for a room reveal in the future).