How to Make Over Your Home with a Bottle of Spray Paint

Spray paint is one of my favorite home décor tools. Here are several ideas for how you can use spray paint to make an outdated item in your home look new and expensive for about a 1 dollar.

1. Spray paint lighting fixtures. Outdated shiny brass fixtures can be sprayed with the new hammered metal spray paint for that aged bronze patina. A flat black spray paint is also very attractive. I saw a line of lighting fixtures at a home improvement store starting at $60.00 for a little pendant light. I went home and spray painted both of the fixtures in my kitchen with a can of dollar spray paint and they looked very expensive. Big time safety people will tell you that you need to shut off the power and remove the fixture then spray paint it. My method is to tape news paper around the ceiling where you'll be painting and remove the light bulbs. Put tape over the light bulb sockets. I don't know what will happen if paint gets on them, but I don't want to find out! Then do short little blasts on the lighting fixture. You might have to come back and do a couple more coats just to make sure that you got everything.

2. Spray paint ceiling fans. This project has about the same directions as the light fixtures but for this project, I recommend taking off the fan blades and giving them a good wash down outside with a hose or in the sink. Usually they are pretty nasty. It isn't that hard to unscrew the blades, just keep track of the screws once they're out. I spray painted the motor part a hammered metal and then sprayed the fan blades a flat brown. It was an 80's fan with the yellow caning on the blades. By spraying the blades brown, the caning just faded into the background.

3. Spray paint cabinet hardware. Sometimes the actual shape and design of a drawer pull isn't that bad but the color isn't quite what you need. This is a really easy project. Take the pieces that you want to paint and get a piece of cardboard. I take the screw that goes with the knob and punch it through the cardboard, and then I screw the knob on to the screw. This just keeps the knobs standing up so you can paint them easier. Then I blast them with whatever color you would like. I did this to the knobs on my bathroom vanity after about a year of lots of use they needed to be re-done but they held up pretty well.

4. Spray paint Range Hoods. My husband and I had a kitchen with all black appliances and were looking for a ductless, black range hood. We couldn't seem to find one. A ductless range hood costs about $30.00 while a ducted range hood costs $100 and up. I couldn't see paying $100.00 just to get black, so I spray painted the old yellow one we had. I didn't take it down but I taped newspaper on the surrounding kitchen cabinets and put painter's plastic drop cloths over the new range. I also scrubbed the old range hood so the paint would stick properly. The only concern I had was the little light switch on the hood. I just sprayed that to, the only time it looked funny was if it was switched on, you could see the little bit of white on the side. Spray paint is an awesome way to redo some not so attractive stuff in your home. Just be sure that what you are painting is very clean and make sure that you are careful not to get it on anything other than what you are intending to paint, because clean up is really difficult!