My Ugly Lamps

I went to the Habitat for Humanity Resale shop yesterday. I don't go there often but it is a great place to find what you didn't know you needed. I once bought a french door for $5.00. Mr. Amazing doubted me, but we replaced the front door of our rental house with it. Worked perfectly and really brought in a lot more light.

Well, yesterday they were having a yard sale. This is the stuff they had that they didn't think was good enough to be in their store.

Look what I got!

Yes...I know...they are really ugly...my best friend even referred to them as "butt ugly" today. But they were only $2.00 a piece! I couldn't buy the inside parts for that.

So here is my vision...I would like to paint them white. Not just white, but I want them to have depth to them...you know...like glass tile has...

Sorry for the blurry photo - my camera didn't want to cooperate. I hope you can imagine the look I am envisioning.

So this is where I need your help. I don't know how to paint these lamps so they look like glass tile.

Oh and by the way, the lamps are ceramic.

If you know how, please tell me. If you have another idea for the lamps, I'm open to suggestions...just in case I can't figure out how to execute my vision.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Oops...

Funny how no matter how old you get or how many times you do something you can still have one of those "duhhhhh" moments.


The other day it was cold at our house....well, we live in Florida so that is a relative statement....but it was cold for us. Mr. Amazing had a lot of things on his project list to do but it was a bit cold to pressure clean the driveway and everyone knows you can't paint outside when it is cold so he decided to move to some inside projects.


Why not paint inside????


So he got his paint from the garage....the cold garage...I might add and started painting...


As it turns out cold paint doesn't cover very well....

You can't tell very well in this picture but the paint job came out very blotchy...what should have covered easy with one coast of paint required two.


No real damage was done and another lesson learned...when the weatherman says it is going to be cold tomorrow...bring your paint in the house to warm up over night before you paint.


What is your latest home improvement "oops"?

Painting All the Molding

When you love molding as much as I do, someone in the house ends up getting very good at painting it. That would be Mr. Amazing in our home. Over the years he has learned a few things that I thought I would share with you.


1. Pay extra and get the more expensive brush. After years of pulling brush bristles out of his paint job he finally bought a good brush a few years ago and would never go back.

2. Use cloth drop clothes instead of those blue tarps. Drops of paint dry faster on the drop clothes and you are less likely to step in wet paint and track it through your house.


3. Always paint in good light. Since Mr.  Amazing has a day job, much of his painting gets done at night. You can see a picture of the light he uses in this post.

4. Use semi gloss on trim. Gloss is just too shiny and you won't be happy when you are done...learned this the hard way.


5. Oil base paint is more forgiving on covering up brush strokes and is more durable longer term. If you decide to go this route, please ventilate the room well.

6. If you are not the trim painter in the family make sure you "ooooh" and "aaaah" a lot...it will help you get more molding in the future.