When we bought our house, we knew she needed lots of updates... one of them being her exterior. She's been neglected to say the least, and well- we're just not fans of the whole 70's motif we have going on. So for a simple, (read: inexpensive) update we decided to paint the shutters! That way we could break up the monotony of brown, brown, brown, and more brown. Let's just say I'm MORE than thrilled because with fall approaching (aka. after the colors have faded) we'll have even more brown surrounding our house, so adding a pop of color I hope really helps liven things up.
First, we laid out a bunch of cut-up cardboard boxes to help cover the ground so we didn't up with blue grass. And fortunately since we've just recently moved- there's no shortage in supply of cardboard boxes in our house.
From there it was pretty basic- lay out the shutters, grab and shake a can of spray paint, and go at it. One thing I read and found particularly helpful is to do light, even coats- keeping in mind that at least two coats will be needed to cover the surface adequately. I found that by doing this, our end result was smooth, consistent, and exactly what I was going for. So just a thought.
After one coat- here you can see what I'm talking about with needing another coat.
I tell ya- reading the label on the spray can is the most effective thing you can do. I realized that a second coat could be applied as early as 20 minutes after spraying the first, but also definitely needed to be applied within 24 hours of painting them. I also realized that for 6 shutters, only 5 cans were needed since roughly it was just a little under 1 can per shutter for 2 coats.
Waiting for all of the shutters to dry enough before applying the 2nd coat.
Unfortunately it began to drizzle while I was waiting, so in a frenzy I leaned them all against the house (don't worry the backs were dry so no blue paint got on our white painted brick). I had to wait until the next day to get the second coat on but like I said, the can said 'within 24 hours' so I made sure to do that, and I am really happy with what we were left with. When I did get to paint them the next day this is what I found waiting for me on one of the shutters-
Who knew we had so many fun bugs around our house? Wait did I seriously just say that? 'Fun' + 'Bugs' in the same sentence... I must be coming down with something. (In case you don't know... I HATE bugs. I am scared of them and they're scared of me (or rather me when I yell for my hero-husband to come save me from them. aka "squash it squash it!!! Now flush it down the toilet so it can't come get me again!"). *Don't worry, no bugs were harmed or killed in the process of this project*
Alrighty, enough stalling from me. Here is the final product:
Before:
After:
Mm hmm. Ain't she a beaut? Much more cottage-y for sure, and definitely a nice break up of the brown! And for under $20 bucks (5 cans of spray paint at about $3.50 a piece), totally worth the cost for a good facelift.
Hooray!
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