Side Table Makeover

This project is one of the ones that I started before I had Troy. I was sitting on my couch in the living room, trying not to melt in this heat and I was looking at my side tables. They were boring white.

I got the tables second-hand and when I first got them, they were a dark wood tone. Not bad, but really not my style and it didn't match with anything. So I painted them white.

Not bad, just not interesting.

I picked up some spray paint with primer built right in (awesome stuff!) in a mustard yellow colour and got to work. First I cleaned off all the fingerprints and stains that had accumulated. Even though all the prep work isn't very exciting, it will leave you with a nicer product at the end.

Unfortunately, one of the cans that I picked up decided it was the exploding kind and proceeded to pour huge amounts of paint all over my hands any time I pressed on the nozzle. And let me tell you, spray paint is not easy to get off!

I was originally going to give the table two days to sit and cure but I went into labour instead and it ended up curing for a week. The tables only took two coats of spray paint.

And here is the finished product:

I love how it brightens everything up in the room. 

Eventually I want to change the wall colour to Benjamin Moore Nimbus, but the will be a massive job since it's basically painting half our house... with two toddlers and a newborn to watch at the same time. I'm trying to decide if I'm  crazy enough. In the meantime, I'll look at my "new" side tables and smile.

Have you been up to any painting projects lately? What colours are you loving? 

Adding Colour

 

S l o w l y but surely, I've been adding colour to our home. Granted, we did paint our walls this beautiful blue/green/grey colour in our living room (I can't for the life of me remember the name) but other than that, things were pretty neutral. Grey rug. Beige couches. Black coffee table. Nothing special. Colour has been showing itself (besides the walls in the living room) by accessories: art, pillows, mirrors, flowers, and books.

Take this mirror for example. A couple weeks ago, my youngest sister and I went thrift shopping and I found this little beauty for $5. 

I knew that I wanted it yellow as soon as I saw it. Instead of spray painting it, I grabbed a bottle of acrylic yellow paint, a foam brush and got to it. If I knew how difficult it was going to be painting all the millions of nooks and crannies with a foam brush, I would have gone out and bought a can of spray paint, but I didn't. *Sigh* It took way longer than I was expecting to paint it, but once it was finished, and hung on the wall, it was all worth it. 

As you can see, I still have the black coffee table, beige couches and grey carpet, but there is a lot more colour going on. The red bench, the yellow mirror, the banner over the fireplace, the pillows on the couch, and the globe on the bookcase. Oh, and let's not forget the bright yellow exersaucer behind the couch. :) 

Here's a side-by-side from when we just moved in, to how it is right now:

How do you add colour in your home?