Project: Out with the Gold, In with the Silver

Our house has never needed much work as the previous owners did a great job of taking care of the place and painting the walls pleasing colors, but one thing we have never understood was the combination of gold and silver/nickel hardware. All doorknobs, kitchen light fixtures, other light fixtures, and the fireplace were all gold, but the kitchen cabinet handles were silver along with a few other things. That is enough to drive a person insane. INSANE. Or maybe just me I don't know.  But, I don't care cause it's my house and I can feel about it how I want.

So, we are in the process of changing things to all silver. We have changed a couple of the doorknobs and will eventually do the others, but one of the first things I wanted to change were the strips on the fireplace. For one, they snap on with a magnet, so they can easily be removed and two, they can be spray painted.  I just had to wait for a beautiful day to do this outside and thankfully, Sunday, was absolutely gorgeous!

As I mentioned before, I love the blog YHL, and she spray paints everything and has some great tips to do so, so I followed all of those steps.  I scrubbed the strips with a scrubber sponge to get them very clean and roughed up a bit, let them dry, and six light coats later of spray paint (waiting 10-15 min between each coat) and here we are!  I let it dry in the garage overnight on the box I spray painted them on and brought it back in the house 24 hours later (for fumes sake) and got her slapped back up!

Here is an excerpt from YHL regarding her spray painting tips from this post:

Oh and when it comes to spray painting tips, here ya go:

• Skip the cheap $2 stuff in favor of the $6-7 quality stuff (I like Rustoleum’s trigger spray nozzle because it goes on thin and even – and doesn’t get all over your fingers).
• Always keep the can moving. If you’re a-sprayin’ your arm better be a-swayin’.
• Keep the nozzle about 8-10″ away from whatever you’re spray painting.
• You really want a mist, not a heavy wet coating.
• Three thin and even coats are better than one thick and drippy one.
• Spray paint has yet to go no-VOC, so apply it outside with a mask, and let it fully cure as long as the can recommends outside whenever you can (usually 24 hours, we try to double that just to be even safer).
• You can “seal” any spray paint (to limit off-gassing once you bring it inside) by applying two thin coats of Safecoat Acrylacq, which is low-VOC and non-toxic.

I did buy the $3 stuff at Dollar General cause it was close and convenient and it ended up looking perfect.  Also, there are no fumes since I left it outside for 24 hours, but I still might get a sealer.  Haven't decided yet.  I still have tons of spray paint left for another victim though, and it was about a $.75 project with the amount of spray paint I used.  Ridiculous.  I sent a text to Scott after I put these back on with a picture and said "Why was this ever gold??"  It looks awesome.  Check out the difference!

Before

After

Kinda makes you want to go spray paint everything now, doesn't it?