Tag: Crafts

My internet has been wonky for the past three days. It has been coming and going whenever it pleases, not bothering to think about my wants or needs and leaving me very frustrated! I wanted to get this post up yesterday, but due to my flaky internet access and a stupid glitch that caused all that I wrote to get deleted, I was unable to post. So here I am, rewriting it, and keeping my fingers crossed that it makes it online this time!

I have been spending a lot of time this past month working on making our apartment feel more cozy. I have been hunting out all kinds of pictures, art, and unique frames at estate sales and thrift stores to fill our walls. Our new apartment has a lot more wall space than the past places we have lived, meaning a lot of blank walls.

One of the things I have been wanting to get is a hook or hooks for our kitchen wall. I wanted something practical so that I can hang my aprons and oven mitts, but I also wanted it to be cute, decorative, and fit in with my decor style. After looking for quite a while in the homemade section of Etsy, I decided to browse the vintage section. I found this pretty quickly, and knew it would be perfect, in another color.

Usually a few times a month I work part time for my mom’s best friend, who paints houses. I have learned a lot from her, but whenever I have a painting project that I am not sure how to go about doing it, I call her up. After this came in the mail I called Ricia, the lady I work for, and asked her what would be the best way to paint iron. She suggested a lacquer or Shelaq sprayed on, then painted with any kind of paint. I knew it would be a few days before I could get to the craft store so I put the project aside. The next day Ricia called and told me she had been thinking about it, and that I could use hairspray in the place of lacquer. She suggested doing four or five coats, and then going ahead and painting.

I got to work on hairspraying and painting my birdies that afternoon. Now they are a lovely butter color, much more suitable for my kitchen. The hairspray really helped the paint stick to the iron. After we screwed it into the wall I painted the screws. I first sprayed a cheap paintbrush with hairspray and painted a few coats on, then went ahead and painted them, just like the birds.

These pictures turned out a bit on the dark side due to the overcast weather we have been having the past two days. Our kitchen walls are actually a mint green color.