My New Best Friend

Meet my new best friend—it’s quick drying, sticks to nearly anything, and can be found in soft muted tones.  That’s right—spray paint.

See, for the longest time I’ve been aching to repaint the dressers in our master bedroom.  These bad boys have been around for awhile now.  Before I entered college, I dug mine out of my aunt’s basement and ended up giving it a two-toned look where I painted the drawers a different color from the base.  The hub’s dresser was passed down to him from a friend—covered in stickers, nonetheless.  A few weeks after our honeymoon, I rescued it by sanding off the stickers and freshening it up with some paint.  Since new hardware is expensive, I chose to ignore the brassy, rusted pieces that adorned each dresser, hoping that we might get new dressers down the road.  But the reality is that new furniture is expensive, and I actually love refinishing old pieces and finding ways to bring them back to life.  So when I started fiddling with the paint colors in our bedroom this past weekend (remember how I alluded to the fact that the orangey color might be on its way out?), I realized that the brass hardware was killing all hope of a calm, soothing space, because no matter what color I painted our dressers, the glaring hardware was all I could see.

Then I stumbled across Kate’s delightful blog, Centsational Girl, and wouldn’t you know, she is a spray paint queen!  I was totally inspired by all the different ways that she uses spray paint to restore furniture—even old hardware.  And with a burst of confidence, I popped over to Home Depot and grabbed a can of Rustoleum’s Winter Gray.  Don’t you love that spray paint now comes in soft soothing tones?

Check out the brass in all of its glory…

Now see the difference a few coats of spray paint can make?

I don’t even notice the old-fashioned design anymore, because the color of the hardware is close enough to my paint color that it looks layered and lovely—all for under $4!  The updated hardware changes the whole room, and the best news is that it isn’t sticky or clumpy.  By using a spray paint grip (that I bought for under $3), I easily applied a coat of spray paint.  Then I let it dry for a few hours (although it probably dried in less time than that) before spraying on a second coat.  Since my hardware has floppy handles, I sprayed on the first coat with the handle facing up, and I sprayed the second coat with the handle facing down.  Waalaa!  New hardware for our gussied up dressers.

Have you used spray paint to completely transform something?  Details, please!