Riot and Frolic

I have a problem.  It's a compulsion really.  

I love moving furniture.  

Our house has a partially finished attic where I created a bit of a guest room (although I dare anyone to stay up there in the summer unless you have some spare pounds you'd like to lose; it doesn't have any air circulation) and two storage rooms (one mainly for crafts, the other for off-season clothes and sporty things).

I like moving our "stuff" around in these rooms.  Or up from the basement, or down to the main floor.  It makes me feel like I've accomplished something in our crazy house, since I haven't learned how to wire a room for electricity or put up drywall.

For example, I moved our six-foot-tall bookshelf from the second floor down to the living room when I was four months pregnant or so.  I took a strange coffee table that was living in our attic out to the car a few months after that.  Just now, I was hauling old baby/momma/daddy clothes out of the attic to take to Goodwill while carrying boxes of books/DVDs/VHS tapes/CDs up to store.  Neat.  I feel better.  

Imagine segue *here.*  (Did you know it's not spelled "segway" like I thought?  Now we're all smarter.)

Way back in the day, I spray painted an ugly brass lamp and was waiting to show you, in reality TV parlance, the "big reveal."  I needed a lampshade first.  Checking out the bargain endcaps at Target finally paid off!  

Not only did I get the shade for $6, but it is my favo color!  Yippee!

I "made" this lamp shortly after this one, when I was on a spray painting binge.   I highly recommend you raid a thrift store (not literally, people) and get the ugliest brass fixture you can find and paint it.  It's even better than moving furniture.

Here's how you do…

Grab a piece of brass (hahahahahaha!), some primer, and your favo color in paint. 

Make sure your piece is clean or at least not dusty.  Tape a bit of the cord and whatever other parts of your doohickey you don't want painted (like the lightbulby-part) and then spray with a coat or two of primer (use a light hand on each coat, like nail polish, so you don't get drips).

The primer is white, by the way.  I thought it would be clear for some reason.  

Then, do a coat or two of your color.  You can more or less do these coats one after another.  Most spray paint is quick drying, especially if you're outside.  Ta-da and voila!

Other things I've painted the same way with much-improved appearances…

A child-height coat rack and a rascal of a light fixture.  Rust-o-leum Spa Blue.  Love.

I also have been making random doodads.

I think I'm going to make them into headbands and force my third lady to be Headband Girl.  She's really too young to argue.  Love that, too.