Mint & Pink Decor Part 1: DIY Spray Painting Chairs

1) Pre-DIY project: Gathering Inspirations

Michaela Noelle Designs

Image via Pinterest

After contemplating for several weeks and browsing through hundreds of images, I finally decided the color scheme for my daughters' new bedroom: Mint & Pink.  I prefer soft, muted hues as opposed to bright primary colors and I wanted to incorporate soft colors that are fresh, fun and calming to the senses.

Plus my younger daughter loves blue/mint while older daughter still loves everything pink, so my decision was fairly easy and mutual. :)

I needed a way to incorporate these two colors into their existing decor (mainly white, ivory and peachy colors) without buying expensive furniture. Nowadays good quality custom painted furniture seem too expensive and affordable ones are lacking in quality and design.

My solution? Finding old wooden furniture and painting them myself.

I'm still a beginner and had no idea DIY projects were so time consuming. My perfectionist tendencies do not help here as I find myself painting, re-painting and touching up constantly every time I find a slight flaw in an old furniture. I need to let go and learn to find perfection through imperfections.

Anyhow, I learned that no matter how well I prime, sand, paint & coat, imperfections are inevitable especially with used furniture. The upside to this is that old furniture tends to be much better quality compared to the wooden furniture sold in mass market these days, and I was fortunate enough to find this dinette set of superb quality at a local estate sale. It comes with a table, glass top (perfect for growing kids!) and six chairs.

These are made in Japan and well-crafted with solid, good quality wood. It's also in very good condition. The downside? It's ugly and so 1970's.

Yuck. After browsing through various DIY blogs I learned DIY projects are all about the VISION, CREATIVITY and POTENTIAL-- and I clearly saw the potential of this miniature-sized table and chair set, perfect for my growing kids. (Were people much smaller in the 70's? Because this dining set is tiny as if it's meant for teenagers, not adults).

2) DIY Part 1: Spray Painting Chairs

So here is the spray paint lineup. So far I've used *Valspar and Rustoleum spray paints and I like them both. I had one faulty bottle of Valspar Primer that stopped working halfway but I'm sure it's returnable (so be sure to save your receipts). Overall, both are good for beginners.

For me, Rustoleum sprayer feels easier to use but I seem to get drips more often than I do with Valspar.
(*Valspar can be found at Lowe's and Rustoleum can be found at both Lowe's and Home Depot.)

As you can see, the Mint paint is in flat and Hot Pink is in gloss. I didn't have a choice with the mint paint because it was the only bottle I can find in this particular color. The gloss sheen is much more vibrant and preferable for heavy use furniture like chairs in my opinion, so I ended up spraying the clear gloss on both colored chairs as top coat.

I then painted two more chairs with Rustoleum's Heirloom White so they can be more versatile and blend in with various decor.

A primer, 5 cans of spray paint and 3 cans of clear coat later- I now have these fabulous chairs that can be used in my daughter's room. I ended up using a bright pink instead of powder pink to avoid the room to look too nursery & Easter egg-like and I'm happy with the results.

Next up: Painting the table.

It's supposed to rain in Southern CA from tomorrow so I will have to put all my projects on hold temporarily. I've officially caught the DIY bug and am having so much fun with these various projects. I can't wait to clean out the whole house and start re-decorating!