Category: Decor

Do you have pieces of furniture or decor that you bought in the past but now either A. Don’t serve their original purpose or B. No longer match your new decor? That was the case with this little farmhouse shelf. I really liked the size of it (great for throwing mail in and etc.) but I didn’t need it anymore in the room I originally bought it for. I did however need something this size for my office but it didn’t match the decor in there. I had found a few gold carts/shelves that I could purchase but some of them were kind of pricey. Instead of getting rid of the farmhouse shelf I decided to give gold spray paint a try.

There are only 1 million different gold spray paints to choose from so my suggestion is to google or Pinterest “gold spray paint” and actually look at other peoples’ projects. It’s hard to tell what color gold it will be from the top of the can so seeing the color on someone else’s project is really helpful.

The color I chose is Krylon Short Cuts in Gold Leaf. Yes the can is really small, hence the name “Short Cuts”, but apparently they don’t make the color in a larger size can. I bought mine at Hobby Lobby, but I also saw it at Michael’s. It’s on Amazon but don’t buy it from there because it’s about 3x’s more expensive. I think the spray paint is always 30% off at Hobby Lobby so that helps since I had to buy 3 cans for $3.99 a piece. Michael’s also often has coupons on their website that you can use in store.

Spray paint is pretty self explanatory, but I just sprayed one good even coat on it and let it dry! I love the color and it now matches my gold/black and white office! You can check out how I painted a black and white striped accent wall here or my inspo board for the office here.

If you’ve been following along then you know that a few months ago I shared my Eleven Collection office inspo board (post here). I was dreaming of a black and white striped accent wall, and I thought it was going to be wallpaper.

I ended up finding Dimples and Tangles tutorial for painting a striped wall on Pinterest. I was worried about painting instead of putting up wallpaper because I wanted perfectly CLEAN lines with no little out of line smudges. After reading her trick I decided to give it a try (and painting was much cheaper than the wallpaper)!

So here goes! I have pictures for each step.

Here’s the BEFORE

1. Decide how wide you want your stripes to be. My ceilings are 8 ft. tall and I wanted thicker stripes so I ended up doing 10.5 in. stripes. I roughly measured that out and free handed the white stripes. Just make sure you’re painting them a little OVER where the exact line will be.

Here’s my favorite tip – Nobody likes the clean up process so put a plastic bag/garbage bag in your paint tray that you can throw away after each use. No more cleaning out the paint tray every. single. time.

2. Let those white stripes dry. I waited overnight because you want to be sure they are completely dry before you put tape over fresh paint.

3. Now it’s time to tape the walls for the black stripes. I can’t cut straight, draw straight, or tell if something is even to save my life. That was another reason I was super hesitate to paint STRIPES across a wall myself.

To make it easier I purchased a laser level to show me exactly where I needed to put the tape STRAIGHT across the wall. I purchased this one from Lowe’s for $20. Yes it got the job done, but honestly I should have spent a few more dollars to get one with a stronger light. This one only uses the little watch size batteries and if my wall had been longer than 10 ft. it wouldn’t have been a strong enough laser to reach across. I’m not sure why I didn’t buy a laser level sooner though!!! It would have made hanging curtains and picture frames so much easier.

I’ve heard good things about Frogtape’s “Paint Block Technology” and if there was ever a good time to try it out then it is now! I definitely need it to BLOCK any black paint from getting on my white paint.

4. Now as you’re applying your tape, make sure you’re pressing out all the bubbles because we don’t want any paint seeping through to mess up the clean lines.

5. The next step in blocking the paint from seeping through is to paint over the tape line. I’ll show you what I mean in the pictures below. This is apparently the magic trick for getting clean lines!

6. Wait for the new white paint over the tape lines to dry then it’s time for the black paint! I bought the black paint from Lowe’s. I just went to the paint counter and asked for them to make me some regular plain ole black paint. It only took a quart that was $15 so that’s a win. I had to paint two coats of the black.

Painters tip #2 for you – wrap your paint roller in plastic and stick it in the fridge to avoid cleaning your rollers between coats. What a time saver!!! I wish I had known about that trick for the countless number of previous paint jobs.

7. After my second coat of black paint I immediately took off the tape. I didn’t wait for the stripes to dry. I held my breath as I began peeling back that first piece of tape…. and I was delighted to see a clean, crisp line behind it!

Here’s the final AFTER

I think I smiled the entire time I peeled off that tape. I was in love with how it turned out! My fear was gone and I was so happy I tackled this project that cost me less than $50 (Tape $8, black paint $15, laser $20, and I already had white paint on hand). You can do this too! I hope you found this helpful and made you ready to paint some stripes!

The rest of the office reveal is coming soon!

So two years ago when i moved into my house, the first thing i wanted to do was paint ALL the cabinets in the house – not just the kitchen cabinets. Was it time consuming? Yep. But it was worth it! I plan on writing a detailed post on the steps I took but I wanted to give a quick update on how they are holding up in case you are thinking about tackling a project of your own.

I used two coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Pain in Duck Egg on the bottom cabinets and Annie Sloan Pure White on the upper cabinets. I then painted on two coats of Old Masters Polyurethane in Satin.

How it’s held up for two years:
So overall I’m really pleased with how it’s holding up and if I had to do it again I would.

What I would change:
I should have done three coats of the protective polyurethane. There are a few places that look like oil? has seeped through. Over the past two years when I’ve cleaned the kitchen I’ve just used a damp paper towel/rag and wiped the cabinets off if they were dirty. That has worked well for me. Wiping the cabinets with a damp cloth didn’t damage them and it cleaned off whatever was on them for the most part. The places that look like oil stains are from places that I didn’t notice until it was too late. I think if I had used one more coat of polyurethane to make it three coats total that it would have completely protected them.

In the two pictures below of the bottom blue cabinets you can see that the bottom right cabinet door has a few splotchy places on it. That corner is where alllll of the prep work happens while cooking so I’m not surprised that’s the corner that has the stains. Like I said above, if I had wiped off the cabinets sooner or done another coat of the polyuretheune I really don’t think they would have stained.

I also painted my bathroom cabinets in Annie Sloan Pure White and they have held up beautifully. I was a little anxious about all the steam in the bathrooms but I have had no problem at all. In my master bath when I have spilled tanner, lotion, toothpaste, etc down the front of the cabinet I have simply wiped it off with a damp rag and that has worked fine.

Next kitchen project is hopefully countertops!

ps. I found my hardware for the steal of a lifetime. They are heavy duty and less expensive than I’ve seen in store. See the picture below… and also admire how awesome the white cabinets still look.

Quick Links:
Bronze knobs
Bronze pulls
Bronze spray paint for hinges