Wednesday, October 27, 2010

the magic of spray paint

it's no secret that the blog world has been relishing in the magic of spray paint recently. i keep up with a lot of diy/home improvement blogs and trust me when i say that it gets talked about A LOT. i don't wanna beat a dead horse (who came up with that awful cliche anyway?) but i did jump on the bandwagon this week. i've been wanting a cute little chalkboard/mail holder on the wall leading into my kitchen but haven't found anything that i really liked. the last time i was at ikea i spotted this one but i hated the wood edges so i decided not to get it. so when i headed back to ikea on monday i looked at it with new eyes. all it needed was a coat of spray paint around the edges and i could have exactly the look i was going for!


image from ikea.com

the piece itself only cost $14.99 from ikea. God bless that store, seriously. i also happened to already have the spray paint on hand which didn't cost me a thing thanks to a $5 ace rewards customer coupon i just happened to have. the spray paint was just under $5 and you have to spend the full $5 to use the coupon so i may or may not have grabbed a bag of peanut m&m's to set me over. ;)


i used krylon spray paint in the burgandy color. all i did was use some painters tape around the edges of the chalkboard. then i stuck a piece of cardboard in the middle and used more painters tape so none of the chalkboard was exposed. (note: i spray painted this BEFORE i put it together which made it much easier to get the coverage i wanted). the great thing about this spray paint is that it dries so FAST! bonus for me was that it was also a 70-degree day in october so that helped the process as well. a couple coats later and it was done. i even managed to put it together and hang it on the wall the same night. that spray paint is seriously awesome stuff!


i love how it looks! the color turned out beautiful and it fits in with the rest of the decor of my home now. i'm thinking about spray painting the hooks and metal inserts black cause the silver doesn't really go with the rest of my hardware. i love that it has 2 slots for mail which is perfect for sorting my roommate and i's mail. and i admit- i'm a sucker for chalkboards. maybe it's the fact that i always wanted to be a teacher or something. i put this verse up there yesterday because it was on my heart that day but it'll be so fun to change it around or see what silly stuff friends write on it when they come over!

my sister also did a little spray paint overhaul on a cute little owl she found antiquing last weekend. go check it out here!




linking this post to: blue cricket designs

8 comments:

Katie @ Loves of Life said...

love it sister :)

the cape on the corner said...

yay, that looks great! what a fun color, and i love that you weren't scared to change from the wood. i admit, the only things i've ever spray painted were things that came from the thrift store. i'm still a scaredy cat, but this just shows me not to be!

www.thecapeonthecorner.blogspot.com

Crazy Shenanigans-JMO said...

That is seriously too cute!! Great work!

Ruth Witmer said...

so cute Sue, nice job!

Lyryn said...

Looks great in person too! Good job babe!

Hailey @ Me and My Boys said...

K so I just now (finally) followed Katie's link to check out your blog. I'm SO excited you did this post. I'm looking for cute ways to update my kitchen, and this is perfect. I also wanted some burgandy in there, but my kitchen is too small (and set apart from the rest of the house) to paint the whole thing red. So this is perfect! Thanks for sharing!!

ps. one of my fav verses :)

Brittany Ann said...

I just bought that same chalkboard at our recent IKEA trip! what a steal!

Murdock's mama said...

Wow! This is really cool. I'm here from your sister's blog. & now your newest follower! :)