My Love Affair With Spray Paint

It's bad, you guys. Somewhere along the line I learned that Rustoleum fixes everything. Ugly picture frames. Rusty mason jar lids. Hand-me-down patio furniture. Relationships. When my world is crumbling and caving in, Rustoleum is usually in the top three of things I turn to. You think I'm kidding? But oh no, joking I am not. Recently I've been having living room melt downs about the state of our coffee table. (I just cleaned it! How is it covered in crap already? What's wrong me me that I can't even keep my coffee table cleared off? How can I combat life's problems with a cluttered coffee table? It's too distracting!) Seth will hold me and let me cry for about 15 seconds, which is about all I need. Then I go on with my life.

Last month while visiting Boston we swung by IKEA. (Ok, no one swings by IKEA. We were there for a few hours and had lunch and tiny princess cakes.) In the deadly "put it all in your bag because it's only five dollars" section, I tried to convince Seth that we needed a tray to corral all the ridiculousness that ends up on our coffee table. His answer was that he'd never heard me mention wanting a tray before and too much princess cake combined with hour three of IKEA overwhelming-ness had me convinced I needed everything. But he told me if I really wanted a tray I could use the surfboard tray he picked out during wedding gift returns. The one that has now been sitting unused in a closet for seven years. (We don't surf. And even if we did I don't think we'd need to tell our friends about our new hobby via a surfboard tray. My guess is we could just tell them using our words.) Only if I can paint it and removed the surfboards, I said. And we reached an agreement.

So last weekend I drug the dusty surfboard out of it's seven year exile. I'm not even positive I'm going to keep it white. I was just so excited to organized the coffee table that I went with what I had.

And I love it. As you can see, another living room staple got an update too. Spray paint is like an addiction. Once you start spraying stuff you see all the other items that need updating. Plus it's a a pain to pull out our drop cloth so I try to get it all done at once. The only thing that kept me from painting our paper towel holder and tape dispenser was the rain that moved in. And the key to not having something look spray painted is cleaning it well before painting (no dust) and to spray several thin layers, allowing drying time in between. Don't try to get it all covered on the first or second go round because then you get drips.

And the tray is doing a great job, pullings it's weight as a member of this family by containing the coasters, candles, books, and electronics that usually get tossed haphazardly all over the table. Seth wondered aloud if the people who gave that chip and dip bowl to my parents as a wedding gift back in the 70s ever imagined it might be used as a cell phone and tiny digital musical device holder. Probably not. Unless they watched a lot of sci-fi movies.

Now, go forth and spray paint. The weekend awaits you. You'll be surprised how exhilarating it is. Nothing says empowerment like deciding the generic box store paper towel holder should be red, and making it so.