I had a very random, sudden idea to paint it a bright colour.
Being a complete novice in the spray painting trade, I trotted off to Mitre 10 Mega in my stilettos after work one night and tried to explain my project to a very nice man in terribly unflattering overalls. I'm talking overalls supporting a protruding belly unflattering. But nevertheless he was very helpful.
I came away from the shop $30 poorer, but armed with a can of primer which he said would "bond to anything"and a bright yellow top coat.
I didn't read up online for any tips on spray painting or priming or surface preparation... so unlike me. But this project was spontaneous and not well thought through.
Let me walk you through as best I can so you don't make the same mistakes.
- I lined the floor of the garage with newspaper as it was raining outside. (mistake one, now a yellow patch of paint on garage floor and newspaper permanently bonded onto my trolley...)
- I sprayed the BLACK primer onto the trolley in what I thought were thin coats (mistake two, covering black with yellow?)
- I sprayed a second coat of primer (actually ok this time)
- I flipped the trolley pieces over to prime the other side (mistake three, the moment the paper began bonding with my trolley)
- I waited for the primer to dry
- Sprayed a thin coat of yellow onto the trolley trying to cover the black primer, meanwhile asking myself why the man in the unflattering overalls didn't sell me a WHITE primer.
- Sprayed a second coat... but not so pleased with the coverage, so I went a bit heavy handed with the paint (mistake four).
- Waited for it all to dry
- Turned it over and sprayed the other side yellow
- Ran out of spray paint
This is NOT a tutorial on how to spray paint a trolley. As you can probably tell, I am not the person to give advice. I liked my brother's suggestion. "why did you not spray paint on cardboard, everyone knows not to use newspaper" Obviously I'm not one of those people...
Now the moment you've been waiting for... the big reveal... The yellow trolley with black primer peeping through and newspaper stuck to it in places (*ahem) and taking pride of place in the guest room.
I splashed some white paint on the old dark brown mirror above the trolley to lighten the area as well. Apart from my thumb prints from where I became impatient and wanted to hang it, the mirror was pretty successful for a quick fix. I just threw some stuff on there for the photo to make my terrible spray painting less obvious. I'll let you decide if it has worked.
So i have just found your blog and am loving it! A much enjoyed distraction in the middle of a work day. I must stop looking now but i leave after a few giggles feeling very inspired. I will definately be back again! Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThanks Verity!
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