Bye Bye Ceiling Fan Brass

As promised, here is a post about some of the updates going on around here.  I know you've been biting your nails waiting for this!

All of the ceiling fans in this house were stuck in 1990.  Brass was popular.  Brass was shiny.  It was in. I've since decided that I don't like shiny and bright staring down at me from the ceiling.  I was not going to spend hundreds of dollars to replace the ceiling fans, so I splurged on some paint.

Nothing short of incredible transformations I must admit.  I used spray paint and a new product I had never used before called Sophisticated Finishes.  This stuff is awesome, by the way.  The product comes in many colors, you can get the antique or rust look by appyling their patina colors.  It has real metal in the paint, can be used indoors or outdoors, and a little 4 oz bottle ran me less than $10 at Michaels with a coupon. 

I spray painted Kennedi's ceiling fan and our bedroom fan; I used the Sophisticated Finishes and brushed on the paint on Andrei's and our living room fan.  I still have Annsley's fan to update.  Spray vs brush on?  Brush on was SO MUCH EASIER!  It was less messy by far and I didn't nearly pass out because of the fumes.  The con would be you don't get that super smooth look that you do from spray paint, but in my opinion, you only notice that if you get super close (and I don't know anyone who is going to get a step ladder to check out my paint jobs anyway.)

Here are some pictures and the tale of my spray painting woes to go along with.  (Remember, I'd share the ugly with you too...) I sanded everything that was going to be painted but I didn't use primer.  If I'd been painting over something that was going to get touched alot, I'd do it differently.  But really, how often do you get up on a ladder and finger the metal of your ceiling fan?

Ceiling fan that came with the house.



I took down the blades, arms, and gave everthing a good cleaning with soap and water.



Sophisticated Finishes in Blackened Bronze, coat #1.  Doesn't look very promising at this point...

Painting the arms.  Use a smooth foam brush for less paint lines!



Coat #2...still having problems but getting better.



I flipped the ceiling fan blades over to the darker espresso finish.  With a third coat of paint, ceiling fan looks AWESOME!

Kennedi's fan with gobs of paper hung around it to catch the overspray. It took longer to protect the stuff I didn't want to have semi-gloss white on it than it took me to actually spray the fan.



I taped off one side of the fan blades because I was going to paint one side satin white and the other a rainbow of colors. 

  Now, at this point, Kennedi's ceiling fan update is going well.  I've managed to spray paint her fan blades a different color (green, pink, yellow, purple, and orange) and I have waited 24 hours and have flipped them over to paint the other side white.  I have my fan blades out on the driveway on top of newspaper.  It is a calm day.  I spray them.  I wait 10 minutes.  I spray coat #2.  I go inside to wait.  I all of a sudden hear a gust of wind roar outside.  Not good.  I go out to the driveway and two of my fan blades are flipped over and the the newspaper is sticking to them.  They will now have to be stripped.

I find some old paint stripper in a box and wipe them down with it.  Unfortunately, some of it bleeds over to the "good" side, so the orange and yellow side will have to be repainted as well.  I scrape off the paint, and clean them up. 

Now it is day #3.  I start with the colored side.  I obviously did not get all the stripper off because within 30 minutes, the newly painted orange and yellow are showing cracking and splitting of the paint.  Great.  I scrape that off and clean them again. 

Now it is day #4.  I spray them again.  They are not looking as great as they did the very first time, but at this point I'm getting a bit ticked and don't care.  I'm beginning to feel like I'm being held hostage by her fan.

Day #5.  I turn the blades over and spray the other side white.  15 minutes after spraying coat #3 I noticed this:

Somebody has stepped on my newly painted fan.  To this day I can't identify the foot print, but I'm still looking....

Instead of stripping them AGAIN, I just layer on the paint to make them somewhat smooth.  At this point I'm more than willing to fork out the $15 bucks for new fan blades...



Kennedi's fan finally finished after 6 long grueling days...



My favorite ceiling fan: our bedroom fan spray painted with hammered silver spray paint.  I just flipped the blades over to the darker side.