Just typing this post’s title got me wailing on Eric Carmen’s song. But I digress.
The photo above shows something I invented for myself over the weekend. See – I decided to paint the hardware on the rumpus room bar to match the other hardware in the room. Everything else is an eye-pleasing oil-rubbed bronze. The bar hardware was a brushed silver. It wasn’t ugly. It wasn’t beautiful. But as I’m currently having a love affair with oil-rubbed bronze, the silver had to go. Because I needed to somehow balance the hardware, paint it and keep it balanced while drying, I needed … something. And then, just like that, my brain-hole gave me a brilliant idea: screw the hardware into holes in a shoe box. It was great! I don’t remember ever seeing this idea elsewhere, though it probably exists already. And if you came up with this idea, bully for you!
Side note. When I first screwed the handles into the shoe box top, I showed it to Mister and I was all pleased and braggy about myself. He looked and me and was all, “Um. Okaaaaay. So you invented a box with handles on it? Yeah. That’s brilliant, babe.” Once I explained it to him, he was moderately impressed. Moderately.
Anyhoo… First, I used sandpaper to rough up the hardware. Only a bit, mind you. But you want the paint to adhere, especially since that bar hardware is used on a regular basis (ahem). So after roughing up the handles, I lined up the hardware’s screw holes on the cardboard and used a screwdriver to poke the necessary holes. Once the handles were in place, I started painting…
These pieces needed two coats for full coverage, so I waited an hour after applying the first coat. Then the second coat went on and, well…
I’m fairly smitten with the way the hardware turned out. And I’m quite pleased with myself for figuring out how to handle the task on my own. Or as I prefer to sing it, all by myself!