How I Created A Pinterest Worthy Office Facelift with Spray Paint

How I Created A Pinterest Worthy Office Facelift with Spray Paint

Posted 2015-06-11 by Erin Jadefollow
I absolutely love spray paint. I never thought of using it until I spent a bomb of money on a couple of tins of paint to upcycle a coffee table a few months back and the staff member in Bunnings asked why I didn't just use spray paint.

There I was, looking at him like a deer in headlights.
"But its so cheap and nasty looking and it doesn't cover well." I said.

Oh how wrong I was...

He took me over to the spray paint cupboard and showed me the rustoleum x2 spray paint that has a built in primer. At $10 a can I was pleased with the price but still skeptical on performance. After spending hours painting on my tin paint with a brush I vowed for my next project I would give the spray paint a go. When I found a old dresser to revamp I returned to Bunnings to get the spray paint. I have never looked back.

Here is my first spray paint venture with the dresser.

Before



After



So when it came time to reconverting the kid's toy room and taking my office back (for the millionth time) I stalked Gumtree's freebie section for a giveaway desk and was thrilled when I found that plus a filing cabinet.

Two hours later and my freebies are in my driveway along with a few cans of black and white spray paint and some tape ( thanks hubby!).

I knew that with these pieces I wanted to create something that was unique and looked classy (also known as expensive). For me black and white ticks both those boxes. I got started on the desk first.

Desk before


I gave the desk a light sand. I really hate my sander. I chose a Ryobi square shaped one and the sandpaper never stays on breaking halfway through sanding. You can buy adhesive sanding sheets and when you buy the sander a few come with it, but do you think I can find a local stockist? No. Anyway rant over.

So once it was roughed up I wiped it over with a damp cloth to get all the dust off and then gave it a coat of black. I only had to do one coat and used just over 1 can of paint.



I really loved the idea of doing a pinstripe on the desktop but I wanted to go for a shabby chic look and so only left the paint to dry a couple of hours (instead of overnight) before taping so that when I removed it it would be a little bit patchy. I also used masking tape instead of painters tape because when you spray the paint on, it wets the tape and crinkles it up giving a ripple/blur effect in some areas rather than totally crisp white lines.





I left the desk in the shed to dry overnight and air out those paint fumes.

Now for the ugliest of all ugly filing cabinet makeovers.



Unfortunately the only before picture I have of this is where it is taped in a cross which is what my original plan was but with two kiddies around there just wasn't the time to go slowly enough to make it pretty and in the end I succumbed to block colouring.

I sanded it lightly first just to rough up the surface for the paint to have something to stick to and wiped off the dust.

Here is where I tried to tape and paint but as you can see I really wasn't up for all the covering and waiting for paint to dry.



I removed the handles and spray painted them with some gold paint I had in the shed and also spray painted a draw on the desk to match. I also had an old cane chair sitting in the shed and so used up what was left in all the cans and did a ombre style paint job.

I think its a pretty good change in the room!

Before



After







For those who are wondering where I put all my children's toys, it's all in the cube shelving hidden behind the desk meaning the kids can get it but you can't see it from the door. Sneaky mummy.

Now all I need is some art for the wall but that's another project...

Categories
#Upcycling
#Office
#SprayPaint

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256756 - 2023-07-20 00:43:46

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