Painting Laminate

I feel like I should be back with something fabulous after being away for so long.
However, it's 8:39 on a Friday morning. I've got about 20 minutes until my brother in law shows up to drop off my nephew and my own kids are awakened by my two dogs barking their heads off at the knock on the door. So instead of fabulous, you get fast and easy :)
Fabulous will come later.

Every DIY/Crafter wonders about painting laminate, right? It's the one thing that no one wants to say "sure! we can do that!"
That's because there are so many different TYPES of laminate. Some are a lot cheaper than others. Some chip off the particle board underneath them.
Some of them, however, are perfectly suitable for painting. It's just a matter of finding a piece that will work. Look for one without chipping or peeling. You shouldn't be able to get your fingernail into the laminate seams. And it should just FEEL thicker. Less glossy.
It's hard to explain, but if you look at enough laminate furniture, you'll be able to tell the decent stuff from the crap.

I found this 3' tall, 2' wide bookshelf at my local DI for $5. For that price, I thought I'd try it. I was my daughters room mom this year, and I really liked her teacher. I wanted to give her something special for Teacher Appreciation Week, and a bookshelf for her classroom seemed like a fun, appropriate gift.

First step was sanding. I used 80 grit to go over it once - fairly lightly - then 100 grit to go over it a second time.

Then I gave it a coat of spray primer.

I painted it a pale aqua - a beautiful color I had mixed at the Home Depot in one of the Glidden paint samples for less than $3. I like using Glidden because their tiny pots come in both flat and eggshell, instead of just flat (like Behr.)

Once it had a couple coats of gorgeous on it, I decided it still needed...something. I considered distressing, but decided to go with a stencil on the sides, instead.

They totally played up the "grandma" feel of the piece - which I loved <3

My daughters teacher loved it, too.
On the last day of school I helped her move some furniture around the room - it all had to be stacked in one area so the rest of the class could be cleaned. The paint had held up perfectly - despite a class of 25 third graders using it daily.
So...painting laminate is definitely possible - as long as it's good laminate, and you do it right :)


NOTE: 8:39 on Friday morning actually turned into 9:15 on Monday morning, because on Friday the kids woke up at about 8:42 and my brother in law showed up at about 8:45 and then, before I knew it, it was Friday night at 9:30 when I was finally done doing kid stuff. Whew! Blogging is tough when you're a mom!

Pimp My Ride

Is that title offensive? Can I say "pimp my ride" on a craft blog?
It's done, now. If it shocked you, please forgive me :)

My little boy (Asher) is turning 4 in just a couple of weeks. Recently, I asked him what he wanted for his Birthday. He said he wanted a black car. To ride in.
Now, since he already has a cozy coupe AND a power wheels jeep, there was absolutely no need to buy him a new ride in vehicle.
But I'm a sucker for this face.

I had to figure something out.

So I made over his old Cozy Coupe.
Are you aware that this is the best selling car in America? It's popularity is astounding. This review, about it's attributes, had me rolling on the floor.

Anyway, on to the makeover.
Ash has had this car for almost 3 years, now. It was his Birthday gift when he turned one. He was delighted with it then, and has played with it non-stop since.

It was actually a little beat up...
Here it is, before:

 

To start, I disassembled it. I scrubbed the whole thing down and removed all of the decals - didn't want to be painting over stickers!

 

The drivers door (the one that opens) was cracked at the bottom - a result of my daughter standing on it to climb on top of the coupe. My husband used some sandable plastic epoxy to repair it. It worked REALLY well, filling in the cracks completely.

 

Then I gave it several coats of this paint

Rustoleum Direct-to-Plastic Spray Paint. No sanding or priming required. In High Gloss Black.

When the entire thing (including the undercarriage!) had been painted, I rigged up a cover for the body using an old sheet that just allowed the seat to show through. Then I painted it white - using the same type of paint.

 

Once all the paint was on I gave the car a couple of good coats of a sealer - Rustoleums Clear Top Coat.

Then I reassembled and started on the detail work.
I considered purchasing another set of decals from Little Tykes - the cost is VERY reasonable...until you add in shipping. I always have a problem paying 4X the amount of the product for the mailing.
So I improvised.
Using paint pens I drew on a personalized license plate and filled in the tail lights.

Then I used a silver sharpie to give it a grill, some door handles and to outline the ignition.
I really wanted to give it a speedometer or a radio on the dash, but with the top of the car back on I just didn't have a good angle to draw it with.

 

Last, but not least, I gave the coupe white-wall tires. Ash requested them specifically. I actually used wall paint on this part - mostly because it was easiest!

After all the details were drawn on I gave one more coat of clear. And then a few more coats of clear.
I'm worried that my makeover won't "stick" - the paint scratched off quite easily in the beginning. I had to touch up quite a few spots...
However, the longer it's on there, the better it seems to be doing. Hopefully it will eventually become part of the plastic :)

My boy loves it - and it's much more to his taste now. A classy black coupe with white wall tires feels so much more grown up than the red, yellow and blue original! LOL
Here it is...all pimped out :)

   

Linking up to...
Transformation Thursday at the Shabby Chic Cottage
Strut Your Stuff at Somewhat Simple
What Are Little Boys Made Of at Seven Thirty Three
Get Your Craft On at Life as Lori and
Look At Me at Fun to Craft

Where do you spray paint?

This is, on many levels, very embarrassing for me.
I grew up the daughter of a car dealer.  My father loves cars like us craft bloggers love our hot glue guns and burlap.  His love is a lot more expensive than ours, obviously.
Some years ago, he built a 3 car garage in his backyard.  It's insulated, heated and air conditioned, wired with satellite television and radio, well lit and decorated. The concrete floors are sealed and clean enough to eat off.
This new garage is in addition to the 3 car garage that is attached to his house, which is also heated and air conditioned, equipped with television and radio, well lit, decorated, and possesses clean, sealed concrete floors.
The point is, I was taught to respect my garage more than I do.

Our garage is...
well, it's nothing like my dads garages are.
My husband and I both drive trucks, and only one will fit inside the garage.  So Matt parks outside. Because I'm a princess. (kidding! sort of.)
Not to worry, though, we've managed to fill the space with plenty of stuff.

(I love paint! don't worry - this isn't all of it...)

There's a big pile of thrift store treasures, large bins where we collect glass to recycle, and lots and lots of paint.  The winter is much more crowded than the summer, of course. Patio furniture cushions, large clay pots from the front porch, etc.

(there's a dresser in there that's going to be FAB!)

Every spring I spend a week cleaning it out, but it never makes much of a difference.

It's okay, though - I'm at peace with my garage mess (even if my dad does shudder every time he comes over!)
The BEST thing about it is that I can spray paint in there.
The floor is covered with strange geometric shapes in various colors from the overspray of all my projects.  It's like a rainbow, I love it.

This time of year, it's getting pretty cold here.
Yesterday it was 40 degrees.
I backed my truck out, set up shop, and got to work.  10 projects at a time - that's what I call a productive spray painting afternoon!

I've got some exciting projects coming up!
1. Will be a large centerpiece
2. Will be a fun candle holder
3. Hardware for a new piece of furniture
4. A curtain rod for my upcoming family room re-do
5. A picture frame - also for the family room re-do
6. A chair
7. A tray (this one is going to be fun!)
8. Behind the buffet - a piece of metal for my upcoming kitchen re-do
9. A buffet, for the dining room
10. A doll cradle - a Christmas gift for my niece :)

Where do you spray paint?

Autumn Sign

Once I finally had all the decorations set up on my new porch bench I realized it needed something else…

So I spent about 20 minutes and made this gorgeous sign.

First I grabbed a piece of leftover MDF that I had in the garage (it was from the porch bench!) and I spray painted it with the gold that I had out from gilding my pumpkins. I also gave a couple of dried yellow leaves that I had from last year a shot of gold paint – they were a bit faded after a year of hanging out inside the cover of my heaviest cookbook.
While it dried I found a font I liked and printed out the word “autumn” in 350 point type. Then I cut it out. By the time I was done (with several interruptions from the little ones!) the spray paint was dry.

I used a glue stick to glue the letters to the wood, and cut a piece of blue tape in half (lengthwise) to give the word a top and bottom border.  Then I sprayed it down again with what “espresso” spray paint I had left.

At this point I decided I wanted the sign to have a bit more “movement” to it, so I took a dry paint brush and gave it some swirls, letting the gold underneath show through.

When the brown was dry I peeled the letters and the tape off – glue stick comes undone SO easy :)
I gave the edges a light sanding to let more gold show through, then I used my copper craft paint to add some additional swirls and paint the top and sides of the sign.
Last step was mod-podging the leaves on!

Very fast, fun and easy project that cost me absolutely nothing! And it definitely added the punch that my bench needed :)

Garage Door

A few months ago Matt and I went to the Home and Garden Expo with Becki and Colby.  There were, of course, dozens of fun things to inspire new projects.

One was a garage door, painted to look like wood.

I asked Matt if he thought we could do it and got a non-commital grunt in reply.  

So the garage door was relegated to a shelf in the back of my brain - to be pulled out at a later date, of course ;)

Then, a couple of weeks ago, Nester had this garage re-do on her site.  When I read about her technique I decided I was definitely going to copy it on my own garage.

As long as Matt agreed.

I was a bit worried...he's super easy going about anything I want to do inside, but this was the exterior...people drive by...

But I was worried for nothing - and I should have known better.  This is Matt, after all - the most indulgent, easy-going husband ever.  

LOVE him.

He even helped!

Here is a before picture:

(taken last fall - it's the only one I had)

During...

(best husband ever, putting our first coat on the high parts)

And After.

It turned out shinier (not sure that's a word.  Probably should have said "more shiney") than I would have liked, but I'm hoping some of that will fade as the sun beats down on it this summer. It certainly faded the paint that was there before.  

I haven't added any cute hardware yet, but I might still do that.  I'm at the Home Depot at least twice a week this time of year, so I can check it out any time.

Overall, I love the result.  It was a super easy, super cheap project, too.  Can't beat that!

P.S. - I know the yard is a mess.  I'm getting to it.  Also, the dead balloons on the front porch were from Tessa's Birthday party the night before.  I took them in with me after I was finished taking pictures.  I swear.  However, the unplanted flowers on the front porch are still there, several days later.  

Growth Chart

When I redecorated Asher's room a few weeks ago I had planned to create a cactus growth chart - but somehow managed to forget about it.  

Probably because I was distracted by a little girl tugging on my sleeve and asking for "curtains around her bed"

But anyway...

I remembered, and I've (slowly) been working on it.

First I sketched the cactus on the wall with pencil.  Then I painted it in with a celery green wall paint, which was left over from Becki's kitchen, and was a color I originally helped pick out :)

When the first coat of paint was dry, I used craft paint to darken the remainder of the wall paint and sponged it on to give the cactus some texture.  Eventually I tinted the wall paint 3 different colors for shading.

After all that, it still looked a little flat to me.  I was all out of wall paint by that time, though (the bulk of Becki's leftover paint went to another project - will post that one later!) so I resorted to straight craft paint.

When it was shaded to my satisfaction (3 more days of shading!) I drew the numbers on the wall.  I wanted to use an 'old west' type style, so I found one I liked and hauled my laptop into Asher's bedroom with me, so I could reference what the numbers looked like.

I penciled them on the wall first, then outlined them with a sharpie.  I painted them in with black craft paint.

I do wish I'd had more shades of real wall paint to use, rather than so much craft paint, but overall the cactus turned out really cute - both Asher and Tessa love to stand next to it to see how tall they are.