Chalkboard Paint Mishap & a Guest Tutorial

Whew! Is anybody else struck with spring fever?! Here in Georgia the weather has been absolutely beautiful! The daffodils and paperwhites and blooming in our yard! Thank you to whichever homeowner before us planted them!

Ever since the weekend, I've racked up 23 bags of leaves, completed my first chalkboard paint project, rearranged practically the entire house - moving 4 bookshelves, 1 vintage console, ALL my dishes, and 2 dressers- looked at paint colors, made a master Spring-Around the House TO DO list, and have been looking at TONS of DIY tutorials online.

The paperwhites blooming in our yard.

Although "completing my first chalkboard project" was right up there in the list of accomplishments, it was not a seamless process. I've seen all of you out there in bloggyland doing these fabulous projects with this beloved paint. And a few weeks ago I bought a can of spraypaint after I had won a roll of blue painter's tape. (I took it was a sign from the blogging gods to start my painting projects.) So this weekend while my husband was out at the gun range I attacked my first project. I read the instructions on the can and got to it.

It was not that easy.

While the can said it was best to complete use outdoors, it did say you could use it indoors, just make sure to cover surrounding areas.

Ummm. Yeah. Maybe I should have spent a little more time looking online for tutorials on how to spraypaint indoors.

Although I had dutifully taped everything off, taped construction paper all around my surface and laid posterboard in a few other spots I began spraying. After I was done, I noticed the nearby kitchen floor looked a little "sooty". I looked down and saw my feet were black. I took out the swiffer and swiffered like crazy.

Can you see the chalkboard door? I still need to buy chalkboard!

Also, make note of this bookshelf ... one day soon it will be painted!

I frantically took paper towels around the house looking for how far spread this evil chalkboard spraypaint dust had traveled. I freaked out every time my white paper towel looked black.

If you follow me on twitter, then you saw my frantic tweets!

I was mad (okay, I wasn't really mad) that I had never read a single comment out there in bloggy land about such disasters. But then again, most folks are probably more seasoned spray painters and know better than to spray paint indoors! Am I alone in this mishap? I simply assumed this would be as easy as it seemed as it wasn't. I didn't scour the internet for tutorials. It seemed simple enough. And actually, it is. Just DON'T use the spraypaint indoors ;-)

Well, LESSON LEARNED for this lady!

This sad sad dresser needs a new color!

Blue or red?

I have a few other DIY projects on my TO DO list involving paint. And I WILL to my research.

So, after my long winded rant, I leave with you a tutorial on how to paint wood furniture. Many of you may already know this. But for those of you like me, save yourself a headache, and look at LOTS of tutorials before beginning your next painting project :-)

Here's a tutorial on HOW TO PAINT WOODEN FURNITURE that I found to be pretty thorough.

And what about this? I LOVE our vintage (& working!) console - but I think it needs an update. We just have too much wooden furniture in our home, especially with our floors.

Okay, so if this post seems a little disconnected it's because my husband came home early! We went to the park and enjoyed being outside for a little bit.

I just snapped the photos of the furniture I plan on painting - suggestions on colors? I'm WIDE open! I'm thinking the dinning room "china hutch bookshelf" would look good a distressed white, paint the dresser red or blue, and then I'm just not sure about the console. Black maybe?

Anyways, gotta go - we're having DiGiorno for dinner (again!) because I didn't plan anything for dinner. I just assumed hubby would be home late again.

I hope it's beautiful where you are! Any spring projects planned?