Copper Floor Lamp Redo with Spray Paint

Mom and I bought this floor lamp 20+ years ago and a yard sale. I've always found a little place for the lamp wherever I've lived, it's functional but not very exciting. 

I wanted to keep it metallic and settled on a pretty copper.

To start, I cleaned the lamp up and then gave it a light sanding. There was no turning back now, since the sanding scratched up the surface.

The base of the lamp is black and was a bit beat up, so I gave it a fresh coat of black spray paint too. Then I used a can of Krylon Copper Brilliance spray paint. I had to shop around a bit to find this new color, but thankfully Amazon has it!

The lamp turned out great, and the new color looks much better with my color scheme than the old chrome did. It really gave the old lamp a new life! I also took a plain basket and did a "dipped" paint effect on it with the copper spray paint. 

Tape all the electric sources

Supply List:

• Painters tape
• Copper spray paint
• Spray paint grip - must have for all sprint paint projects!

More Repurposed Jars

 I've mentioned before that I save all glass jars, and I wasn't kidding. I just wash and clean them, and set them aside... waiting for inspiration or a project to come up. Since I have a household full of boys, I don't get to be girlie often, by I love to use glitter in my projects.

For the pen jar above I used a Coconut Butter jar that has a nice wide mouth as a sparkly pen jar. After the jar was clean, I used small paint brush to coat the INSIDE of the jar with Modge Podge and silver glitter. I let the jar dry three times and redid the painting process after each time. Otherwise you are just moving all the glitter around, but if it is dry you are truly adding another coat. This fully covered the inside of the jar with glitter.

When dry I did a thick layer of Modge Podge inside the jar with NO glitter to seal layers and so the glitter won't come off.

In the background is a large olive jar that I used thin painters tape and gold spray paint to created a shiney vase with stripes. The last is a probiotics bottle, with a more narrow mouth. I used Snow Glitter (which is coarse and opaque, a lot like epsom salts) on the outside, applied with Modge Podge. Here is the same vase with a few pretty flowers.

Mason Flower Jars Thank You Gift

Recently I needed to make a large number of inexpensive Thank You Favors and decided on repurposing mason jars into small flower vases. I hosted a Thank You Party for all the ladies who have volunteered for a school event and used the jars as a table center piece, but near the door so they could take one when they left. It was the day before Mother's Day, so it made for a really nice gesture. 

How To:

I used purchased mason jars at Smart & Final and ran them all through the dishwasher wash off any dirt or oil. I then used painters tape to create a striped effect on half the jars, the rest I painted completely. The party had a candy theme, so I used two different pink spray paints. I quickly created printable tags and saved the document for you use HERE. Printing them on Cardstock makes a nice little tags. (Cardstock is basically very thick paper and handy to always have on-hand). I cut out the tags, punched a hole and wrapped twine around each jar. My co-host brought two bunches of beautiful flowers that we trimmed up and added to each jar. 

Supplies Needed:

* Mason Jars

* Spray Paint

* Painters Tape - thin

* Hole Punch

* Twine - I used a combo of jute and pretty craft twine

* Cardstock Paper

* Google Doc Thank You tags (use mine!)

Aluminum Kitchen Stool Rehab

Here is a super simple, but really stylish update for the kitchen: Aluminum Stools, done with spray paint. Originally the kitchen stools looked like this. We purchased them 19 years ago, so I have certainly gotten my use out of them.  

4+ years ago they needed a little sprucing up, natural wood tops had yellowed and the paint was chipped. After a good cleaning, I repainted the whole stool white. I printed off a Fleur de Lis from some online clipart, traced around it and painted it in with a pretty blue. I loved them like this!

But I was ready to try something new and had been admiring the new aluminum and metal stools I've seen around and wanted to copy the affect. I thought about buying new stools, but I already have two perfectly good ones, so why not paint them!

 I started by cleaning and sanding the stools and used a spray paint (Krylon Metallic Matte Aluminum) I already had. I always use a Spray Grip when I spray paint, and I LOVE mine! I started on the bottom and always make sure to shake my spray paint cans really well. I spray back and forth in a line, starting and finishing off my piece. I stop a few times in the middle to shake my can again.

Once the bottoms and insides were complete, I flipped the stools over and worked on the top and edges. Since I had painted these before, I knew where all the wear would show on them. After two good coats of the Aluminum paint,  I did a coat of clear finish and a 2nd clear finish coat just on just the heavy use areas (seat top and edges, spindles)

And here they are, the beautiful finished product! These get very high use in my household, so I hope they hold up well. They have definitely inspired me to find a few more metallic paint projects, what about you?!

Copper Dipped Basket - Spray Paint Method

I like to use baskets to store things around the house: toys, magazines, blankets. I pick them up when I see them on sale, even if I don't *NEED* another basket. 

Recently I've noticed the trend of the "Dipped" Basket, where it looks like you have dipped part of the basket in paint, and wanted to give it a try. I was holding out until I found the right basket and was really set on a color and I'm so glad I did!

INSPIRATION - From Martha Stewart

I used my Krylon Copper Brilliance (that I finally found at Michaels and three other stores were out) spray paint and it worked great! Several of the instructions I saw involved pour paint in a bucket and actually dipped your basket in. But that seemed like a huge effort and waste. The spray paint method worked really well.

I turned my basket upside down and used blue painters tape to mark the area I wanted painted. Then I taped on newspaper to cover the area I did not want painted. My basket was very "nubby" so the paint didn't stick very well and I was worried that it would make a clean line. But it turned out just like I wanted! My only regret is that I didn't start higher up on the basket to make it more dramatic. It is subtle and adds just a tiny bit of sparkle to my living room

 Click HERE to see my other projects with Copper Spray Paint