The post in which I go on a spray painting spree.

This past weekend, I went on a mini spray painting spree. The kind where I get so impulsive about pushing and aiming the little nozzle that I almost spray paint my cats.

Almost.

I decided the glossy look wouldn't suit them.

It all started when I wanted to experiment with using frosted glass spray paint to achieve the "etched sans hazardous chemicals" look. I try to save the hazardous chemicals for the member of my family that sports a white coat from 9-5 and whisks me off to dreamland with bedtime stories about loop diuretics and hypertension. (That is a true story: whenever I can't sleep, Rick volunteers to start talking medicine. Works like a charm.) My process (which, I'll assure you, is not earth-shattering ingenuity...I'm sure countless others have used frosted spray paint to achieve the same look) consisted of four very simple steps:

1) Find glass to spray paint. In this case, I used two recycled Yankee Candle jars.

2) Tape design to jar. I used regular Scotch tape on the tall one and didn't have any problems with the spray paint bleeding through.

I would love to try this same thing with shaped stickers or custom adhesives cut with my Cricut. But I'll save that for another day.

3) Spray paint jars with frost spray paint. I used Rustoleum Frosted Glass.

4) Peel off tape. Ta da! Ambiance shot:

That lantern in the above grouping started off like this, purchased for $.75 from the recent Ronald McDonald House Charity Sale (talk about a yard saler's paradise: this event overflowed an entire vacant Dick's Sporting Goods from front to back with donated--and cheap!--treasures):

Clearly, it was the next victim on my serial spray painting spree, because it is now white.

And on the other side of the mantle is my subtle $1.99 Goodwill hint that it is fall, which I also spray painted white.

Spray paint=wonder paint. You'll never look at gleaming faux copper pumpkins the same way once you can picture them with a new coat of paint. And you know you talk too much about the "potential" and "possibility" in things when your husband, out of the blue, says "Hey, that vase has good lines."

I was so proud. :)

Any favorite spray paint fixes? Feel free to share or link to your work!

The post with the color conundrum.

You all know this tune, so feel free to sing along: "Somewhere stuck in the rainbow, heaving a sigh, there's Erin looking confused and torn, and not sure which color paint to buy..."

Which one to choose?!

OK, so that's not how Judy Garland sang it when she was decked out in braids and seersucker, but it's how I metaphorically sing it every time I have to decide what colors to use when decorating a room. My problem is that I love TOO many colors. When I was long past my days of coloring, I asked my parents for the box of 96 Crayola crayons (which, as I reminded them, I had been deprived of as a child) just so I could admire the rainbow produced by that collection of waxy little guys. And their names! I mean, what English teacher can't appreciate a color named "beaver" or "denim"? (I plead the 5th about "fuzzy wuzzy brown"--apparently Crayola's creative juices weren't running quite as strong the day that they picked that one.)

Fast forward a few years and come to our wedding planning:  I changed my color selection twice. Or maybe even thrice (er, Shakespearean hath has begun sneaking into my fair speech, must cease straightaway). I just see so many beautiful color schemes that it's really hard to decide on just one, hence the many hours that I have spent, in a stupor, staring at walls of paint chips and fabric.

But since selecting colors for this apartment is desired, if not necessary, I have come up with a few rules for shopping to achieve the looks I want without investing in expensive, color-specific items that I will, undoubtedly, want to change within the next year--or at least when we finally move to a house of our own.

1. I don't buy anything for the home that is even close to being full price. Sorry, stores, but your rat of 10% off "clearance" just doesn't cut it with this shopper. This means being a coupon fiend as well a frequent flyer of thrift stores, yard sales, Craigslist, architectural salvage stores, and the clearance racks. If I don't spend a lot of money, I don't feel bad changing it, repurposing it, or giving it away when I tire of it or it no longer fits my color scheme. Take our dining room set, for example. I bought the table for $75 and the chairs for $20 on Craigslist and then painted the whole set to look cohesive. If, when we move, I don't want this particular set anymore, or I want to change the color, no problem: we either sell it for cheap or take a trek to Home Depot to pick out its new paint. Without a big price tag, I am free of the guilt I might feel for no longer wanting it and wasting that money, so to speak. I also don't feel as though I must keep things simply because I paid a lot for it.


2. I buy small accent items that can easily be painted or spray-painted depending on my color needs. These ceramic birds, for instance, started off as light blue avian beings sitting on the clearance rack at Michael's. With a quick coat of Valspar's glossy Bumblebee, they became chubby little canaries for our office bookshelf. And I could easily change them again if they decided to migrate to a different room. Small items that are metal, ceramic, or wood are all prime candidates for superbly easy spray-painting to change up the color.


3. We spend time, not money. Rick and I enjoy our projects, so if having the new color we I want means spending an evening repainting a piece, no problem. We actually find that we get a lot more satisfaction out of taking some free or cheap item and using our own sweat and tears to transform it (again, I reference our dining room set) than simply strolling to the nearest store and handing over our credit card.


4. I use what I have--and what I find. This means keeping my Yankee Candle jars, glass pop bottles, and even the occasional Wegmans BBQ sauce jar. It also means I take stealthy trips around the block on garbage day, trolling people's recycling bins for unique bottles (many of which will never cross our threshold, since we really don't drink) that I can use in a countless number of ways. The best part about these treasures is that if I decide I don't want it, I just put it back on the curb--exactly where I found out.


So there are a few of my "shopping rules" when it comes to selecting the ever-changing decor for our home. Feel free to add your own ideas and wisdom!