Tuesday, July 14, 2009

I love Spray Paint!

Another project I thought I'd do this week was a chair for Cami. I had an extra chair, I had two cans of extra red spray paint and a yard of extra black and white fabric. Cami is decorating her craft room in reds and blacks and I thought this would be perfect since she needs another chair for in there!
I LOVE spray paint. I spray paint a LOT of stuff at my house. Our garage has several colors of paint on the floor and there is always spray paint dust on everything in our garage (including my husband's motorcycle... which he is NOT happy about.... come on, it washes off!) So, since I do this so often, I thought I'd give you some tips on spray painting....
1. Clean whatever your are going to paint. Just wipe it down with a wet cloth and let it dry.
2. Always use primer. I don't like to sand the stuff that I paint and sometimes when you're painting metal or plastic or other such things it's kind of hard to sand. But if you use primer, the paint sticks well and covers well. Most primers are white or gray. I usually use white if I'm painting something white and gray for all other colors. But the Smith's Marketplace near us sells black HD Designs brand primer that I love because I spray paint a lot of things black.
3. I paint in my garage with the door all the way open or part way open to let things ventilate.
4. Primer the top with a coat, flip it over, primer the other side. Then paint the other side with the paint, then flip it over and paint the top side.
5. It will usually take about 1 can of primer and 2 cans of paint for most pieces of furniture... like a chair or headboard.
6. Distressing is your friend! If you have paint runs or places that didn't get a good coat, just use your little electric sander or sand paper and sand off those places.
7. Finish your project with a clear coat to protect the places that you distressed.
*You can spray paint almost anything as long as you primer first. If you are doing a piece of furniture that has a lot of smooth flat surfaces like a dresser, table, bookshelf, etc, I wouldn't recommend spray paint. Spray paint will usually leave spray lines on things like that. I would use a small foam roller and brush to get in the corners. However, spray paint is great for things that have rounded parts or hard to reach in places.

Here are a few other projects I have painted since I moved into my new house...

This cute headboard to matchthis cute mirror in my guest bedroom. Most of my kitchen chairs. This cute chair goes in my craft room, but it is so cute I couldn't resist taking my baby's picture on it!

4 comments:

Lib-Dawg said...

I am SO GLAD you posted your pink headboard and mirror!!!! I love them so much! Thanks for the tips, what a great thing to post!

Anonymous said...

I have a new chair! Cool! I feel LOVED!
And look at your adorable signature! Very nice.
--Cami

Chunk N ME said...

Can I just say you guys are FREAKIN amazing!?!?! Most excellent! I can't wait to try some of this on my own :)

AJ and Kandice said...

I love your kitchen table/chairs!