Sterling silver spray paint love!



My new favourite product

I have been looking at so many faux mercury glass tutorials on peoples blogs that I thought I'd like to try it. I knew where I could get some hurricane candle holders for $2 each so all I had to do was source the Krylon paint. Knowing that Spotlight stocks Krylon, I thought I'd look there. No luck but I did see some silver paints - there was the Krylon one that all the aficionados said wouldn't work and Champion Sterling Silver. I hadn't read anything about Champion so I thought I'd by some. It was under $20 and I can always use a bit of silver paint. Cut to a couple of hours later. It didn't work for mercury glass, but I did note what a gorgeous rich silver it was. So in the hunt for something to try it out on. I had a couple of blue plastic baskets in my craft room that I spray painted as an experiment - brilliant - they now look like chrome baskets. I was instantly in love. I contemplated spraying other furnishing items around the house - picture frames, a bronze lamp base - but couldn't find what else I wanted to paint. My house is a more tarnished silver house than a bright silver, so I decided to leave well enough alone.



The end result



A couple of weeks later as I was going through the stuff from my craft room, I was contemplating sending a small blue halogen desk lamp off to charity. It had been pretty when it was first new with a translucent blue case however it hadn't aged well and the pretty blue had faded and now had yellowish cast to it. I then wondered how it would look silver. The answer - fabulous. I wish I had taken photos of how dowdy the poor lamp had looked before. I found a photo of the lamp in a catalogue as a "before photo" but of course it is all fresh and blue not dingy and faded as mine had been. It was hard to get a good photo as this thing is just so shiny!

I do want to give it just one more coat. I touched it when it wasn't quite dry and have now got a 1 cm area that looks like a smudge that I'm not entirely happy with. The trouble is I love it so much that I don't want to have to turn it off to do it and wait for it to dry



Cream lamp before

 I also found a cream version this morning that had been in my daughter's room (she now has a cool black lamp and doesn't want it)  and it is currently out in the carport drying from a new silver treatment so I will have a cute almost matching pair for my desk.

Mid spray. I also found a couple more plastic baskets to spray!





Pretty silver though!

 Watch this space for the cream lamp after!

Lessons learned. When people say other brands don't work, don't be afraid to try - they may not work, but you may make other wonderful discoveries. Don't be too hasty waiting for paint to dry. Wear gloves when spray painting!





How do I love the Wall Mates... Let me count the ways

The trusty little Wall Mate

One of the best discoveries I have made in the past 2 years was Wall Mates. When the new library was built I expressed a desire to hang paintings and the builder introduced me to them. I had seen them in places like Bunnings but never actually used them but now I am in LOVE! Previously if I wanted to hang anything more substantial than a small painting, it was a laboured process involving much banging of walls and using the electronic stud finder which seems to have the same accurate hit rate of a drunken person at a bar looking for a potential mate - only about one in every 10 possible hits seems to be an actual stud!!


Before: and this was after I got rid of some of the 9/10ths empties

 I am in the process of hanging some display boxes/niches in the bathroom to take the overflow of hair products, face products etc that crowd out the sink, make it a pain to clean and just clutter up my very ordinary unattractive 1980s sink.
The wall I am mounting the niches on was originally to have floating shelves, but they were too deep for the space and would have interfered with the medicine caninet opening , so I comandeered the three niches that I had bought for Caitlin's room. They cost next to nothing ( $10.00 from KMart) and are not terribly well made (I have already reinforced the largest one with bigger screws and will possibly do the same with the other two, but all the things that will live on the shelves are light so I have faith they will hold.

(What am I doing blogging now instead of drilling?) I said "in the process" because I have only just cleaned the wall, measured it up and placed the first wall mate when Michael came in wanting a shower. He has been outside welding a frame for Caitlin's A/C and was so sweaty it looked like he had actually already been in the shower! So I left him to a peaceful shower and decided to write about it.

Some 2 hours or so later....


The new shelving



The clear bench!



Back to the bathroom..shelving is now up and filled

and sink is now decluttered. Now to keep it that way!

Craftgawker

craftgawker look to inspire I could spend hours on this site (and already have!) Another great discover I have made courtesy of Pinterest! There was a gorgeous little felt bird pinned. I clicked on the link to look more closely and it led me to Craftgawker. What a cool site - so many ideas and inspirations!