Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Conquering my fear... of spray paint

Two posts in one day? What? Is it like spring break or something? Why, yes, it is spring break around here, which means I have some extra time on my hands. Today I worked on two projects... a small one and a big one that I am thisclose to finishing. Y'all are on the edges of your seats. This post is about the small project, and how I started to overcome my fear of spray paint.
Source
Don't they just look scary??
First off, I have no idea why spray paint intimidates me so much. I mean really, it doesn't seem to scare the teenage hoodlums that are tagging up the fences at the park. Boo for them. Anywho, after redoing our floors this weekend, two big eyesores popped out at me: the air vent thingys air return registers on the floor in the bedroom and the living room.
As soon as the vent cover was put back on the floor, I just really didn't like how it looked against the laminate floor or with the paint color on the walls. My brother said they made wood ones that could be stained, so on Sunday morning I was off to Home Depot. And BOOM! Home Depot was closed by police for a bomb scare. (Maybe boom was the wrong choice of expression given the situation...) Monday I headed back over there, bringing with me a sample of our floor and the measurements of the covers I wanted to replace. I walked over to the aisle and saw lots of these covers, I went to grab a wood one when I noticed it wasn't the right size. I started to search around, and I discovered that we have "interesting" sized vent covers, and a wood one would have to be special ordered. Hmm. Special order = expensive.

So I wandered over to the scariest section in the store, and faced a wall filled with spray paints. None of the spray paint is named "wood colored" so I finally decided on glossy khaki by Rustoleum. I figured $4 was a much better price than special ordering two floor vents AND if it really looked ugly, I could always order them later.

Today I went out to the garage, laid down some paper, and after fighting to get the cap off  I sprayed.
Action shot
And, it wasn't that bad. In fact, it was pretty easy, and went on quickly and pretty even.
Please ignore the badly painted trim area on the wall. That is part of the flooring project that hasn't been finished yet.

It is a really small change, but I like how it blends in much better with the floors in both rooms. I think I am ready to do some more spray painting now. In fact, I think spray paint may be used to finish up the "big" project I worked on today. :)

Do you use spray paint? How come no one told me how easy it is to use??

1 comment:

Kim @ NewlyWoodwards said...

Spray paint is a miracle worker, isn't it? I love small(er) projects like this, that pack such a punch.