My quest to find my inner crafty-girl one small project at a time.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Epic Fail

Yikes, I had my first major project upset today.  wah, wah, wah, wah (that's the sound of my disappointment)

It started with these ugly old sconces that I scored from my mom for free.

My plan was to paint them blue in the middle and then spray them white around the outside so it was a cool two-color number.
First step after the priming was to paint the whole front surface blue. I was using the same color that I used for the vase in the dining room. (These were supposed to hang on the wall in the dining room!)

Then, I taped off the middle with some Frog Tape so I could spray paint the rest a glossy white. I then painted a light layer of white - taking extra care to do it in short strokes and not globbing it on. I have read several blogs teaching the correct way to spray - much different than my glob it all on in drippy strokes!

This week was a particularly hot week in the DC area, so I waited extra days in between coats to really allow the coats to cure and stick. Man, I thought I was doing everything right this time!  I scratched and roughed them up, primed them, sprayed them in even strokes and did several coats. But, unfortunately, I think the heat and humidity over the past week just beat me. The Frog Tape stuck to the paint and when I pulled it off, it left a layer on there. And then on the second one, it pulled off everything with it! Doh!

Here is how it should have turned out, sort of:

Unfortunately, you can see the extra sticky-ness that was left over on the blue from the tape. Not sure what happened there.

And, here is what happened with the second one.



Yikes, everything just pulled right off! Gross. So, it looks like it is back to the drawing board on this one. My next adventure with these sconces will be with a brush and paint so I can do it inside. Maybe I will try that Chalk Paint I hear people talking about. But, I need to take a break from these bad boys for a little while. On to something else for now...

3 comments:

  1. oh i hate when stuff like that happens! i do the same thing- put it away and wait til i am ready to attack again.
    hope you guys had a great weekend!

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  2. I was wondering what they were doing on your steps ;) On to bigger and better projects--like painting rugs!!

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  3. I really hope you can make it work! I love the white and blue idea!!

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