Office Makeover Spray Paint or Regular Paint Part 2

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As I continue with my dramatic office makeover I wanted to share the second installment in the series -Spray Paint or Regular Paint.   You can see how I stared the project in Part One of this makeover series.

I decided to make a drastic change in my office.  I went from a deep terra cotta colour, that complimented my desk mighty well, to a light bright Forget-Me-Not from Benjamin Moore.  It is a light seafoam blue/green that works well with the wood windows and trim.  There are also built-in bookshelves that are a medium stain oak.  I have wanted to paint out those bookshelves for years but my painter (ahem, hubby) does not want to do the detailed work and hours of labour that it would take to finish. 

Without a doubt when we move from this house, I am certain someone is going to come in and paint those cupboards Benjamin Moore Cloud White… no doubt at all.  But alas, it is not likely to be for me.  Back to focusing on my makeover.  I find myself in front of my floating shelves and I ask myself: spray paint or regular paint?  Once we had finished painting the room, I decided that the shelves and maybe some of the frames were going to change colour and I want it done quickly.

Spray Paint or Regular Paint

I am a big fan of Benjamin Moore and I know they always have a product for every project that I’ve ever tackled.  The first DIY project was the 14 foot counter in the bathroom in our old house (nothing a little melamine couldn’t fix) but they have a new paint that is specifically for painting furniture and cabinets called Advance. 

Advance is a water-soluble and has easy clean up (not so for melamine as it is an oil based paint).  So I was eager to try this out on my new project, the problem was I wanted to do this rather quickly and I wanted  buy-in by my husband.  There is no question that I trust my favourite people at Clancy’s Rainbow,  my local Benjamin Moore dealer, but I kept thinking of the tight timeline and the ease of application: so I kept debating spray paint or regular paint?

I have completed a project in the past that was a makeover for a an old cabinet.  Instead of using regular paint, I decided to spray paint it.  Although it was much easier to cover the legs and the intricate filigrees, it was not as great on the flat surfaces on the front and side panels.  When you want to have details in an object covered, I always think its best to go with spray paint.  I have painted other items before (like a lamp stand) that needed to be covered well, I  knew spray paint will do that.  Painting with a brush or a sponge, just seems to get all clumped up.

Office Makeover with Benjamin Moore

I decided that to get this project done, I would just buy some spray paint and get hubby to tackle it. I’ve learned that if I want help on a project, I have to make this as painless as possible. So if you want to see the progress this is what the shelves looked like before

Forget Me Not Benjamin Moore Office Makeover

As you can see in the ‘after’ The effect of painting the shelf made the wall lighter.   We took the shelves off the wall (they are LACK floating shelves from IKEA) .  These shelves are not very expensive but I did not need to replace them with new ones.  I just wanted to re-use the ones that I already owned.  So we bought a few cans of Rust-Oleum Universal Advance Formula.  There were three reasons we went with this option: (1) it was paint & primer in one;  (2) it was the closest in colour to the picture frames & other shelves  that I had bought at IKEA; and  (3) it came in gloss.  I have always spray painted in high gloss.  I don’t like a matte finish or satin finish in my opinion.  They are not shinny enough.  The gloss finish is also smooth to the touch.

Spray paint or regular paint.

Spray Paint wins the day!

Spray Paint or regular paint for the  Shelves in the Office makeover _@DownshiftingPRO
Spray painting was quick and easy

When you set out the shelf to be sprayed,  place something underneath it to keep the shelf off the paper (to avoid it sticking to it).  My husband place the shelf on top of two bricks because it was elevated enough but not too much.  He managed to spray paint  it without any streaking or drips.  He let it dry for 24 hours before he applied the next coat.  He applied two  coats to be sure it was consistently covered  because it went from black to white.  

I did ask him not to paint the underside as it would not be seen.  I took the picture below for you to see the black underside but from the angle where I sit at my desk, I  don’t see anything black.  I guess if you wanted light to reflect more, you would paint it but that did not make a difference to me.  If I did paint the underside, I would encourage you to let it cure for at least one month before you flip it over and sprayed it.

Spray Paint Shelves for Office Makeover_@DownshiftingPRO

Below you can see that the second shelf that sits above the shelving unit.  I was worried that the beige would clash with the white gloss shelf but I don’t think that it looks too bad.  I was not interested in painting the cabinet at this time.  That may be a larger project that would be best done with Advance paint and a foam roller (but that is another post all together Smile).

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The other object that was painted was the magazine holder.  I bought the Spontan magazine rack  from IKEA in high gloss black for the other  colour scheme. But as you know, this was not going to cut it.   This turned out very well, don’t you think?

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When I decided to re-organize the pictures, art and frames that I had on the wall, I opted to purchase two smaller shelves that would hold different items.  It  meant that I could change things around without having to place different nails in the wall.  Although my preferred  tool to hang picture frames and art are 3M Command hooks, I knew that I would have to wait 30-60 days for the walls to cure before I could do that. 

Since I wanted the project done sooner rather than later and I did not want to wait.  As it was, when I was taking Command hooks down before the makeover, there was at least one that peeled the paint right off the wall.  To say the least, hubby was happy to just put up two shelves instead of mapping and levelling out a bunch of frames.   As you can see, I think that the two small shelves matched the longer one quite nicely.

Spray paint or regular paint.

Office Makeover before shot of Terra Cotta by Benjamin Moore @DownshiftingPRO
Area above my desk: Before
Spray paint or regular paint
Area after with the new smaller shelves

Editing was not the easiest task.  It took me a good two weeks to figure out what I wanted to keep and what I wanted to give up. I laid everything out on the dining room table and move them around.  This was much easier than trying to imagine them on the wall.  If you notice, I moved all of the canvas plaques to the opposite wall to frame the Lighthouse poster.  Some of the smaller pictures now sit on that cabinet. 

I introduced the Picasso exhibit poster, from this summer’s visit to Vancouver, into the mix.  The orchid and plant holder and  the oval picture frame on the top shelf (both from IKEA) are brand new.  The mosaic frame is one that I made when I was in Barcelona last year and the white apple came from the living room.  Moving around items means you don’t spend too much money on re-decorating.   

Spray paint or regular paint.

My Benjamin Moore Office Makeover 1

I debated for the longest time about spray paint or regular paint for the frames but decided that I wanted to keep the hardware on the cupboards and I choose to keep black as an accent colour throughout the office.  I knew I was not going to change the monitor, printer and legs of the desk that are all black.   As we move along with the makeover, I hope that you leave me comments on how you see the project going along.  In Part Three you will see how I lightened the back of the cabinets with fabric.

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Margarita Ibbott is a travel and lifestyle blogger. She blogs about travel in Canada, the United States and Europe giving practical advice through restaurant, hotel and attraction reviews. She writes for DownshiftingPRO.com and other online media outlets.