All You Need is Love (and Spray Paint)

I’m so excited to bring you this Thrift Store Decor Upcycle Challenge! I’ve teamed up with 20 other bloggers for this thrift store blog hop. The rules were simple– we each took an item(s) from a thrift store, yard sale, resale shop etc. and transformed it into a new piece of home decor. There was no budget or theme to stick to so we were free to let our creativity run wild!

Amanda | The Kolb Corner   Erlene | My Pinterventures  Kim | Made in a Day  Sara | Twelve on Main  Emily | Two Purple Couches  Shirley | Intelligent Domestications  Marie | DIY Adulation  Lindsay | Crazy Organized  Michelle | Our Crafty Mom  Julie | Live From Julie’s House  Debra | Shoppe No. 5  Dru | Polka Dot Poplars  Maureen | Red Cottage Chronicles  Pili | Sweet Things  Channell | Hobnail House  Colleen | Life on Kaydeross Creek  Ann | Duct Tape and Denim  Paula | Virginia Sweet Pea  Sherry | Savvy Apron  Stacy | Anastasia Vintage

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All you need is LOVE (and spray paint)

I’m always impressed with amazing thrift store redesigns. Turning something ugly into something gorgeous at a fraction of store price is definitely a skill. Unfortunately it’s never been my strongest skill, but finding easy ways to do things IS a skill! So I’m excited to show you how a simple can of spray paint can do. It can transform an ugly unappealing thrift store item into an awesome decorative addition to your home … for both inside and outside the home!

I was in need of decorations for both an indoor and outdoor coffee table. Inside: decorative glass balls for a clear bowl for our guest room. Outside: a large candle lantern for our roof deck patio. I found both at Goodwill. While both items were fine on their own, neither matched the color scheme I was going for in either room. That’s the amazing thing about spray paint. You no longer have to worry about what color an item is so sky’s the limit on what you can select!

The spray painting technique was the same for both items (see more about that below), but the ‘props’ I used varied for both. Anything round, such as the glass balls, can be difficult to spray paint.  So I propped them up with an empty egg carton. Placing a garbage bag underneath ensured that I wouldn’t make a mess with the spray paint. To spray paint the lantern, I placed it in a cardboard carton from Costco laying a garbage bag inside.

A couple coats of blue spray paint on the outdoor lantern and gold & silver spray paint for the indoor glass balls completely transformed these simple thrift store items into the affordable home decorations!

Yes, spray painting is literally THAT easy. Here’s my top tips.

Top 10 Spray Painting Tips

1. What can I spray paint, you ask? ALMOST anything …. wood, plastic, metal, fiberglass, tin, ceramic, mirror, glass, plaster, concrete, terra cotta, canvas, laminate, and particle board.
2. You can never shake your spray paint can enough. Shake the can for a minute, then shake it again for another and also shake it while you are spraying.
3. The ideal temperature for spray painting is between 65 – 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Cooler is better with no humidity. 
4. Several lighter coats of spray paint are better than fewer longer coats. Yes, it may take longer to spray paint your item, but you’ll avoid dripping.
5. Each coat should dry to touch in 30 minutes, 1-2 hours to handle and 24 hours to be fully dry. Patients is key 🙂 .
6. Keep the spray can 10-16″ away from the item you’re spray painting. If you hold the can further away, the paint can start to dry before reaching the surface which will create an uneven look. 
7. Shake shake shake! (It’s the single most important thing you can do to successfully spray paint so it’s worth mentioning again!)
8. It’s hard to prevent the nozzles from leaking so the easiest way to fix is to hold on to spray paint nozzles even after the can is finished. Then you’ll have a stash of nozzles to swap out if one gets clogged.
9. I typically don’t use a topcoat when spray-painting because the majority of items I paint are decorative. But if I’m spray painting something that might get a little bit more wear and tear, then a top coat is always a good option. My go to is Rust-Oleum Clear Gloss Spray Paint. 
10. Placing your item inside a cardboard box with a garbage bag underneath is a great way to contain the paint to one area!  

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