Paint away

As we saw yesterday, painted furniture can be fun, fresh, and supercalifaaabulous. And when I said bloggers far and wide love to get their craft on with a cheapo piece of furniture and some spray paint, I was not lying. Here are some of my favorite, inspirational projects I've come across in the design blogworld.

featured on Little Green Notebook

And while Jenny, the author of Little Green Notebook, did not personally complete the above makeover, she might be the best DIY fixer-upper of old furniture I have ever seen. Here are two examples.

it now looks just like a beautiful but very expensive Swedish Mora clock

and here's another example...

I know. Wow! You need to see this woman's entire dining room. She pretty much made or repainted or reupholstered every single item in the room, and it is just so darn impressive. One of my favorite before/after projects ever.

But moving along... the gals over at Matters of Style have a whole list of DIY projects on their blog. Here's a favorite of mine. Below is the before shot of a bamboo console that was bought for $12 at a local thrift store.

A little white paint and voila! Looks worth a lot more than $12 now!

Below is an early shot of Erin of Elements of Style's dining room. I am not a fan of the red chairs and neither was she.

Nothing a little white paint couldn't fix!

You all remember my first furniture painting experience? I turned this $50 IKEA table into a sleeker white desk. (It's the INGO and actually costs $70. But I grabbed this one off CraigsList.)

A more affordable option than purchasing the $300 West Elm desk I so wanted.

And my favorite thing about painting projects (spray paint in particular) is that it doesn't have to be used solely on wood furniture. We've all seen mirrors, frames, patio furniture, and lamps get quick makeovers thanks to a $4 can of bright paint!

Emily A. Clark finished a few great DIY painting projects for her daughter's bedroom.

And she spruced up these - sorry, Emily - hideous lamps so that they now look like the porcelain lamps I see selling for $300 a pop!

Bravo!

from Deliciously Organized

from Smitten Design

I have so many painting projects on my list of things to do, but unfortunately, it's best to paint outdoors in a temperature between 50-90 degrees. As I'm sure you can guess, it hasn't been that warm in Chicago since October. Alas... I have a couple more months before I can grab my rubber gloves and spray away.

Are you a DIY paint person? Do you prefer spray paint or latex paint?

Feel free to send pictures of before/after shots if you want to see your work featured on LCY!