Do you remember how funky our front door looked when we bought it? Let me refresh your memory:
Hideous, right?
Well, after we spruced it up and stained it and made it look a little less prison-like, we added some snazzy new hardware to our refurbished front door:
I love the black satin finish of the entry hardware – doesn’t it look rich against the stained door?
When we ordered the hardware for the front door, we were able to pick one finish for the exterior and another finish for the interior – pretty snazzy! That way, the door hardware on the interior could match the satin nickel finish that we have on all of the rest of the door levers throughout the house:
We also picked out a new black mail slot for the front door – unfortunately, we couldn’t pick a different finish for the interior, so we’ve been stuck with this mismatched look in our entryway for the past six months.
After staring at this unsightly sight month after month, I finally decided to take action. I marched into Home Depot and marched out with two cans of magic that were destined to transform our mismatched mail slot into something a little more coordinated. Something a little like this:
Here’s how it all went down:
1. Buy some magic in a can. A full arsenal of spray paint is a must-have for any DIY-er. In this case, I added a metal primer and a brushed metal spray paint to my collection:
The primer wasn’t absolutely necessary since our mail slot doesn’t get a lot of use (or any, actually – we have a mailbox, too), but I decided that a little extra sticking power never hurt anyone.
2. Take it all off. Armed with my handy Phillips-head screwdriver, I tackled the four tiny screws that were holding the interior side of our mail slot into place. The result was none too pretty:
3. Make a work station. Newspapers, drop cloths, whatever you have on hand makes the perfect work station for a spray painting party. I happened to have a random cardboard box lying around so I stuck the screws into the cardboard so that they would stand up and propped open the mail slot with a little stick. MacGuyver would have been proud:
4. Get into prime form. If you thought this project was easy so far, get ready for this step – it’s about to get even easier. Whip out your can of primer spray paint and spray thin coats of primer all over the mail slot (and screws) in thin, quick bursts. I took a little practice shot on the cardboard just to get in fighting form.
5. Give your trigger finger a workout. After you’ve let the primer dry (30 minutes or so should do the trick), it’s time for the star of the show – the brushed metal spray paint. I don’t know of a spray paint that matches satin nickel hardware exactly – that brown undertone is hard to match. Maybe a coat of brown underneath the brushed metal paint would do the trick? If anyone knows, chime in and let us all know!
Anyway, after a few passes with my brushed metal spray paint the mail slot looked like this:
Not too shabby!!
6. Screw it up. Give the schmancy new mail slot some time to dry, then screw it back up and admire. Let’s take another look at that now-matching mail slot:
This was hands-down the easiest project I’ve ever done. And talk about (virtually) instant gratification!! Excluding dry time, this project took about 5 minutes. It doesn’t get much better than that!!
Are you a sucker for spray paint? Fill us in on your favorite project that you tackled with a can of spray paint!
This post is shared with Tales from Bloggeritaville, Blue Cricket Design, The Thrifty Home, We Are THAT Family, and Domestically Speaking.
