I’m an incredibly impatient person. My mother has always said (ahem, complained) that I like things “done yesterday.” This is completely true. When I want something, I want it at that precise moment. A’s favorite thing is to give me a singsongy “Be Patient,” and then I want claw his face off, but unfortunately I bite my nails so I don’t have claws and A’s face is just too damn handsome to harm. I guess that’s fortunate for him.
When I started DIYing over the summer in my workshop (which is the garage under our house that we’re afraid to put the car in because it’s such a tight fit, so SARAH’S GOT A WORKSHOP! A even bought me my first drop cloth.) I discovered my instantaneous best friend:
SPRAY PAINT.
YOU SPRAY AND BOOM YOU ARE DONE. AN HOUR LATER THAT MIRROR IS HANGING ON YOUR WALL! Well sorta. But you get what I mean, there’s no priming and waiting, and then painting and waiting. And then painting the second coat too early and ruining the whole thing and crying. That’s usually my last step. Crying.
For my first project, I found this mirror hanging out in the garage -Â we somehow inherited with our house. It was white, pretty disgusting, and took quite a bit of cleaning before I could even get it to the stage I could spray paint it. After some extensive grime cleaning, a light sanding (DIY PRO-TIP: it’s always good to lightly sand things that have a glossy finish, it roughs it up and then helps the paint adhere – just make sure you wipe it down with a soft cloth afterward to get all the dust off of it) it looked like this:
A white mirror on the garage floor, on an old sheet, next to some grass seed #homeownerlife
Since everything in my house must coordinate with my 1970s decor, I chose avocado green! We don’t live anywhere near a Lowe’s, which has the best spray paint by Valspar (amazing color palette), so I had to make do with what I found at Walmart. I got Krylon Color Master Enamel paint in Ivy Leaf Gloss. I only used one can for this project and I believe two coats in the end.
VOILA!
MIrror, mirror, on the wall…
Green mirror with my vintage ashtray below it (which I now toss my make-up in)
I tiny bit of paint got through my Price Chopper ad and painters tap, but it was nothing a razor blade couldn’t scrape clean off. This mirror is probably one of my favorite things in the living room now, and it cost me about $3.67, the price of the can of spray paint. Once I finished the project, my confidence grew and you’ll see next week the ugly mammoth I decided to upcycle!
