spray paint- not just for vandalism anymore.

when you live in a big 'ole house and have a small little budget, sometimes you've gotta improvise.

one of my favorite things to do is flip through pottery barn catalogs, stroll through anthropologie, drool over other expensive home decor websites, and then try to mimic what i see.

in the dressing room i was able to make a lot of things work with the help of a $3 can of spray paint.

enter, rustoleum:

you have to show your i.d. to buy it at home depot. 

it makes me feel very dangerous.

who knowwwss what i could be doing with this spray paint?

i could be tagging my gang name on your grandma's ford taurus.

if you see "m rizzle" in hammered gold on a bridge somewhere just keep quiet, mmkay?

anyways, i chose this hammered finish because it dries really imperfect and it makes things look antique and a little bit more expensive than a flat shiny finish.

so instead of lusting over these little knobbies at anthro for $10 a pop, i went to home depot and found these for $3.99 instead.

i think i mentioned before that the bullets that fit in the center of the knobs were silver, so i busted out my trusty can of spray paint to give them the hammered gold finish:

also notice the previously mentioned "antiquing" we did on the edges of the vanity with the same spray paint applied on a brush.

next up, i had spotted these loverly switchplates.
there are similar looking ones at home depot but they were still pretty expensive and they looked cheap.
so i bought the cheapest white plastic switchplates i could find (i think they were like 70 cents) and busted out the rustoleum once more.

remember the switches before?

ewwie.

now pretty!

now for my next trick!

remember the blue and yellow jewelry racks from urban outfitters? 

(gifts from a couple christmases ago).

i think you can see the texture of the paint in this picture pretty good.  

you like it.  you know you like it.

and last but not least, i got a full length mirror from target for 15 bucks because i haven't had one since... sheesh like since we've moved to pennsylvania.  

and it was getting kinda hard to stand on the toilet to get a full body shot what with this preschooler i'm carrying and all.  

the only trouble was, the mirror was white, and my walls are antique white, so it looked.... bad.

so you know what i did! mmhmmm.

look at that sexy hammered finish.

  here's a shot of the wall with the mirror AND jewelry racks:

 

except don't mind the doorknob hole, 

dad just took it off last weekend to refinish.  

i'll post more on that when he replaces it, 

because his craftsmanship is pretty amazing.

so there you have it!  i made some new cheap stuff look a little more special, and i made some old unmatching stuff work for the room, with just a little can of spray paint.  

i even have some left over for your grandma's ford taurus. 

watchyoself.