Before & After

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No, I do not want a pink door.

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Yesterday I decide to take the front door from a dreary maroon to a vibrant cranberry.  Simple project, right? Why is it always the easy projects that end up being far more complicated than you intended?

Before heading off to buy paint, I pulled out one of my handy paint fandecks and picked out a color I thought would be fabulous: Radish.  The sample looked like the lovechild of magenta and maroon and matched my paisley rug fabulously.  I got the paint mixed and the wet paint almost sent me into cardiac arrest... it was hot pink!  When I saw a dried sample of it in the store, however, it looked closer to my sample.  I went home wary, but hopeful.

Thankfully I decided to test a patch with a few coats to make sure that I didn't end up with a hot pink door.

Yeah.. that wasn't going to cut it.  Even after 2 coats and letting it dry for 12 hours, it wasn't even close to the coveted Radish color.

Out came the acrylic paints left over from my design school days- I was determined to tap into my atrophied color mixing skillz and get the right color!

The color was super scary when wet, no?

Thankfully after quite a bit of trial and error, I ended up with an acceptable color and finally got 2.5 coats on the door.

Here's a reminder of where it started.  Not horrific, but could use a touch-up and pick-me-up.

The after isn't drastic, just slightly cheerier and much less scuffed. (and not neon pink!!)

How did your weekend projects go?  Easier or tougher than expected?

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Reflections and New Mirrors

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After the whirlwind cleaning and house prep for the housewarming last Sunday, its been a week of mental recovery.  I was pleased with the way the house looked for the housewarming, but its still not where I want it to be.  I suppose its pretty darn good for only having lived there for only 4+ months, but it still doesn't look designed.  Call me crazy (and I'm sure you will), but I feel like as a designer, my house should be held to a different standard.  ...But as I've ranted before, too much corporate design has atrophied my residential design chops.  I'm planning a trip to the library (or maybe an order to Amazon) to get some inspirational books that keep repeatedly popping up on my radar: Details: A Stylist's Secrets to Creating Inspired Interiors, Undecorate: The No-Rules Approach to Interior Design, and Decorate: 1,000 Design Ideas for Every Room in Your Home to start with. Before the housewarming I didn't realize how busy I was making myself and how much I just needed to stop for a minute and relax.  So I've been making up for that this week ;-).  Between needing a break from house projects and a painfully quiet week at the 9to5, its been tough to find inspiration in the past few days.  Forcing myself out of this funk, I still have a pre-housewarming project to share with you!

Remember the $4 rummage sale frame I got?

Well, it doesn't look like that anymore.  It's now a mirror!

After seeing it featured on the Nate Berkus show, I decided to hunt down Looking Glass Spray: a spray paint that gives a mirror finish to glass.  I made a few calls to the local craft stores (and looked in the home improvement stores),  and realized my only way was to order it on Amazon.

Here's where I've failed you- this project was part of the whirlwind before the housewarming, so I neglected to take progress pictures.  Will you forgive me?

The frame itself got a fresh coat of hammered gold spray paint before I secured the glass to it with epoxy.  Once the glass and frame were secured, I took 2" painters tape and (on the back side) taped around the edges of the glass.  Following the directions on the spray, the back side got 5 thin coats (and one minor drip- oops).  Pull off the tape and voila!

Overall, I'm very pleased with the outcome!  Its more reflective than the picture shows, but not as much as a traditional mirror.  It kind of has an antiquey feel to it.  I think next time I would actually put 1 or 2 LESS coats to make it look a little inconsistent and a bit more like a weathered vintage mirror.  I'm itching to use this spray on some glassware to make it look like mercury glass.

I have a few other projects in the pipeline including bedroom curtains and planting some new flowers (from friends and family from the housewarming), but I'm boycotting house projects at least until the weekend.