How 8 Cans of Spray Paint Updated an Entire Room

Almost. The accessories help!

For my first Ican’tbelievesomeonetrustsmetopostontheirawesomeblog guest post, I shared my updated guest room. I rambled on about the room at The Adventures of Ordy and Joon, but there are two details I neglected to include for fear of talking too much on Joon’s lovely blog.

Yes I know I talk about this room a lot. Don’t worry, this post is focused on painting tips.

I don’t want to forget to thank JandJ Home for the sunburst mirror idea and NW Hospitality for the DIY lamp shade tutorial (more to come later this week!).

But before I properly thank those two creative chicks, I want to highlight how easy this room makeover was because of one tool: spray paint. Its the easiest way to update furniture, even for clumsies like me.

The two main pieces of furniture in my guest room needed major facelifts. The nightstand and guest bed were functional but begging for updates.

 

I used two different strategies for painting and both work well. Really, its all about the prep work. The actual spray painting is a cinch!

I started with my great-grandparents bed (I thought it was my grandparents, but my dad corrected me. He really does read the blog!). I moved the bed to the driveway and reassembled it so I could paint the whole bed at once.

My neighbors think I’m crazy.

I was afraid to use the electric sander because I didn’t want the thing to fall apart (its so old!). I tried to sand it by hand but quickly got lazy so I only sanded the parts that looked shiny, and then cleaned the bed really well.

I used two coats of white primer and two coats of white spray paint. It might have been a little overkill but I wanted to be sure to get all the details covered.

 

The bed turned out great! The white paint puts a modern twist on such an old piece and goes with the room much better than the wood.

I’m pretty sure Diego is posing in this pic.

The second piece was the hand-me-down nightstand.

 

It needed a bit more work. First, I used the electric sander to sand off all of the current paint (or stain?). All the drawers looked different, I think it was a mixture of the two. Not sure what the previous owners were going for there.

After sanding I primed with one coat of grey primer. Then I noticed some splitting in the wood so I filled it in with Elmer’s Wood Filler. My tip for filling in small holes is to just squeeze out a little filler on your finger and smear it into the hole. Then swipe over it with your fingertip to smooth it out.

  

The directions say to wait 24 hours before painting, but I have no patience and painted it about 45 minutes later. It turned out fine (but try this at your own risk, there are directions for a reason!).

After the one coat of grey primer I used two coats of glossy green spray paint. The paint on a couple of drawers wrinkled a little with the first coat of paint. If this happens while you’re painting just wait till it dries, sand it down and paint again.

 

I used ORB (oil rubbed bronze) spray paint to update the hardware).

 

First, I set up the knobs on a crate and painted. On my way out the door to work one day I noticed I missed a spot or two, so I just picked up the damn things and spray painted them in my hands. Do not do this! You will go to work with bronze fingers.

I’m so happy with the nightstand results! Here’s a before and after.



Here are the updated pieces in all their glory.

 

Thrifty Decor Chick has some great spray painting tips here. I have one to add for people who tend to get covered in paint like me:

Wear socks you don’t care about and then take them off when you go in the house. My first spray paint adventure involved many coats of black, which ended up on the soles of my bare feet and consequently on the family room floor :) I use the sock trick so I don’t track paint in the house.

Yes, I am about as careful as a 4 year old. I like to think I’m focusing on the furniture and forget about myself but really I’m just not patient enough to avoid the side effects of spray paint. However, the shiny new paint is totally worth the colored feet and bronze fingers!

Linked up at The Space Between,

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