A little spray-paint tutorial, in which my methods are revealed.

 

We are slowly accomplishing this project of re-purposing rooms.The laundry is now on the second floor in the newly re-done bathroom, which is next to the other bathroom that was also re-done.

That leaves the place in the mudroom to be fixed up, where the washer and dryer were.

A friend suggested a bench, and it just so happened that Craigslist had the exact one I needed. This post is not about that, so I will give you this one sneak peek:

 

If you want to see how it was before, this post will remind you, and also give a more realistic view of the green, which for some reason looks weird here to me, which is no good because it is the best green ever.

Anyway, I am here to clear up mysteries about spray painting.

Painting in general is something that can be made very, very complicated. And if you are me, just dealing with brushes alone is enough to prevent me from painting things. So while yes, you can achieve the nice painted finish without the spray, I would like to offer some reasons to pay the premium (in money and in possible lung collapse but more on that below).

First, when the job is small, you are not going to save money on buying a container of paint. That’s because brushes are expensive (especially ones for non-latex paint, which this is). It’s true: per gallon, paint in spray cans is dear. However, your container of cost-effective enamel paint will be mostly wasted. I think we all know what happens to that two thirds of a can of paint… it dries out and you have to chuck it.

If you need to paint something big, by all means, go the brush route. But for little things, spraying is the way to go.

Second, I am brush-averse. I hate having to deal with a brush between coats (tip: wrap it in plastic wrap — don’t clean until the very end!). I hate the clean-up, no matter how long it is postponed — even for latex paint. I detest not knowing where to put a brush when I need to answer my phone. Spray painting eliminates all that.

 

So, as promised, here you have a view of how I do this job in my own super-professional way.

Basically, you want to have a surface of cardboard — not newspaper! Newspaper gets glued to any object being painted. Please, for the love of all that is doing a job with a minimum of fuss, don’t use newspaper.

If this object to be painted was a table or something more vertical, I would set up cardboard behind it as well, and probably prop the cardboard against my trash barrel.

You want it at a good height and in the light. This is my well known Garage of Death, which yes, has a vine growing into it at this moment (the Trumpet Vine of Voracious Activity). It’s a country garage, not a suburban one. That means, it’s the kind of which your four-year-old might exclaim, “Mama! Did you know that some people put CARS in their garage??” 

Yes, honey, I’ve heard tell…

Well, my garage is a fine place to do this painting. You could also do it outside — I painted a crib out on the driveway.

Important tip #1:

Shake the can! The directions say to shake for a least a minute. You have no concept of how long a minute is when you are shaking! It’s an eternity. Watch a video on your phone so that you actually shake for that long. And shake whenever you pause your spraying.

 

Important tip #2: 

You need to commit yourself to light coats and many of them.

I don’t know if you can see in the photo above, but the white of the bracket is still visible (it might look like glare because this is a hard thing to photograph when you are also doing it). You want to train yourself to stop at that point and do a little chore or read a chapter of a book so that the paint can dry.

If you try to cover all at once, you will get drips. Just work for a light coat from a good distance. I set things up near each other so that I’m not wasting much paint. Just go along with a sweeping motion, trying to get the coverage started but not finished.

 

 

I probably had three or four sessions of spraying, in between each I did such things as pull the laundry off the line, start supper, answer emails, and give the dog water. Each coat took about 15 minutes to set up.

The screws just need a spray on their heads. Poke them right into the cardboard so they stand up.

I did not end up using that excellent nozzle, which saves your hand for many types of cans. The one I chose happened to have the kind of cap that won’t accept the trigger thingie.

 

(The jury is still out on the actual color. We shall see. It looks astonishingly lurid here and maybe also in real life.)

 

You can see that as I neared the end of the project, I took the screws away so that the threads wouldn’t get gummed up with paint. The cardboard testifies to my sweeping motion. I didn’t spray at each bracket — I just went back and forth. I turned the whole cardboard to get different angles. That glare is in real life, because spray paint is (usually) shiny. Make sure you examine the object from all angles.

With regular painting, you do a coat and then you do a second one. With spray painting, you do multiple coats, all quite light.

Use a mask (I didn’t, even though I have masks, but I did hold my breath. I figure that it’s a good way to prevent myself from over-spraying at any point). And don’t wear flip-flops. The spray is in the air. It settles down and you end up with lightly coated feet. Trust me.

I rarely sand.

I don’t prime.

If there is a drip, wipe it away, let it dry, see if it needs to be sanded a little. Re-coat.

It’s alkyd (non-latex) paint, so it’s durable.

I think that is all — I can answer any questions in the comments. It’s really easy to spray paint stuff! I have lots of things here that I’ve spray painted over the years — I really recommend it!

 

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