Oh crud, I missed it again

Yesterday was Makeover Monday and I missed it. Blame it on the all-day-long headache, or that it was Monday after a lovely four day weekend, or that I got my new camera and that was all I could focus on (get it, “focus” on? I kill myself!) … whatever. I missed it. But, now, I’m going to post about my week’s makeovers anyway and you can’t stop me!!

I have this painting, the only real painting I own and it recently needed some help. I bought it from someone that bought it from an auction, and I love it. Here’s what it looked like before…

Painting...

Yes, I realize that this is a horrible picture of the painting, but unfortunately, iPhoto decided to stop working correctly for me and I had to rebuild the entire photo library and it didn’t put things back the way I had them. Therefore, I can’t find squat. Technical issues seem to be piling up around here lately… Anyway, that’s it, up on the wall in our old house.

And here it is up on the wall in the new house, however the walls weren’t painted yet. Okay, so technically they are painted, just not the color I wanted them to be…

Painting - new house...

Do you see the navy on the wall? Yeah, that didn’t stay long. It got painted over in black. Then again in a blue/purple gray, and finally in the perfect shade of gray for my house. But this is not about the wall makeover, this is about the painting. How do you makeover a painting? Well, first, it falls off your wall and the frame cracks all the way through. Oops. How did it fall off? I have absolutely no idea since it has been hanging on the walls of my houses, using the same hooks, for years now. But it simply FELL OFF THE WALL!

The lovely crack...

I made every attempt to mend the frame, however, it is made of foam. Yes, foam. I didn’t know they made frames of foam, but I’m learning all kinds of new things lately. Anyway, I ended up using gorilla glue to keep it together and it worked, but was not pretty.

Enter black spray paint. Yep, two coats of the beautiful stuff made it all better. Well, good enough to hang again for now anyway. If you look behind the painting, you will find that the painting is literally taped onto the frame using duct tape and some staples. The frame, being foam, wouldn’t hold the nails it once had to anchor the picture into it. Good thing no one looks behind artwork, huh?

The wonders of spray paint never cease to amaze me...

I like it better now that it’s all black in the space too.

And here it is again...

The gold color that it was didn’t quite work with everything else in the area.

And so, while I had the spray paint out, I decided that this table…

Front entrance table - before

needed to be updated to match the new gray/black/white thing going on in the room. So I went to my Pinterest Boards and found all the tutorials on spray painting furniture. Like this one from Creations by Kara. Click the pic to be taken to this link – oh boy, there I go again, being an unintentional poet!

from Creations by Kara

And so, I sanded lightly and  primed…

I used Valspar primer - (don't worry, it got an additional coat of primer after this)

And then finally painted in Valspar Black Glossy spray paint. It took about ten coats on the top, and it is still not perfectly smooth. I don’t know why the tops of dressers, tables, etc always get so splotchy looking? Any ideas on how to prevent that? I even tipped the piece back while I was painting it to see if would help. It didn’t.

Entrance table - after

I’m going to give it a few weeks to cure completely and then sand down the top and use the Valspar black enamel paint I used for the side tables. It was easy to use, coated like a dream! I am not sure why I didn’t just use it on the flat surfaces to begin with, but something about having that spray paint in hand makes it hard to stop! Besides the splotches, I LOVE it! For those of you who can’t help but notice that the tile is U-G-L-Y, yeah, it’s on the list of things to change. For now, it’s best to just look away and pretend it’s not there.

I’m trying to decide if I should move the table underneath the painting, or leave it on the other side of the entry way. Suggestions?

Anyway, that’s it for a late Makeover Monday!

Oh, one more “makeover” of sorts started yesterday. Me and the hubby started Weight Watchers! We intend to have a compitition, which I know he will win since he’s a guy, but it will keep us on track a little better than if there wasn’t any incentive. So, I’m off to find some Weight Watchers recipes for Tasty Tuesday. I’m going to miss all the fattening stuff I used to be able to try 🙁

Wish me luck in kicking his booty. I’m a terrible loser – in every sense of the word.