Blogger Inspired Project: Lacquer Boxes

I missed yesterday's post because Peyton was sick and it seemed I was hit with the same bug she got. Over the weekend I started in on my kitchen wall--I sanded down the stripes and primed over them. Then I did one coat of paint (Sherwin William's Harmony paint, color-matched to Glidden's Silver Birch, which is the same color in the adjacent dining and living room). After the first coat went on, I had to sand down some areas where the stripes were still visible. (Painting over stripes is. a. pain.)  Then Peyton got sick. So my kitchen is currently a disaster zone and still needs one, maybe two more coats of Silver Birch before I can stick a pin in it.

So, in lieu of an actual planned post, I thought I would share another blogger-inspired project that I started last week and finished over the weekend.  I was inspired by Jen of the IHeart Organizing blog.  Jen's blog has quickly become my favorite blog lately--her posts sharing tips on organizing, cleaning and projects have inspired me on several occasions to get up and clean or organize something.

With my love of color and anything lacquered, one of her projects really inspired me- her take on Stacking Boxes. Check her full post out here-I promise, you won't stop with just one post!!!

In any case, I followed her suggestion and stopped by Michael's and grabbed a couple of wooden photo boxes (actually, I'm not sure she used wood--but these were all I could find at my Michael's!). I got lucky because the day I stumbled into Michael's happened to be a BOGO sale. Which worked out very nicely since I bought two photo boxes, two tubes of Martha Stewart High Gloss Acrylic Craft Paint in Beach Glass and Scottish Highlands, and the Martha Stewart Crafts roller and tray kit.

On a side note-ever since I read this blog post  about Martha Stewart talking trash about bloggers, I haven't been a huge fan of hers. And I absolutely hate contributing to her bottom line when she talks bad about the people she uses to promote her products.  But my absolute favorite paint color is her Beach Glass. Such a conundrum. 

But I digress. Back to the project. I primed the boxes before I slicked on two coats of paint, followed by two coats of Poly. I ended with sticking on self-adhesive clear rubber bumpers to the base of the boxes, so the painted finish didn't stick to anything (I learned that the hard way from setting my painted tray on a painted table... ouch. Let's just say the table needs repainted now.) I also didn't add the gold tape that Jen used in hers, so I may still order a roll and add that down the line. For now, the boxes add the pop of color I wanted.  

Here is where I tell you two tubes (not four) are all that is needed to cover both boxes. Here is also where I tell you the roller and tray kit did not work for me at all. I followed the kit instructions and lightly spritzed the roller with water, dried it ever so slightly with a towel and then loaded it up with the paint. And the paint just created bubbles all over the surface. Fail. So I switched to paint brush. What I was hoping to avoid with the paint brush were brush lines. So the end result is not a perfect finish, but it will do.  If I were doing the project again I would go out and buy one of the small foam rollers from Home Depot since Martha's roller just created bubbles.  (Which, actually, I might, because I am really crushing on coral and pink together right now....ooh, and white lacquer with gold polka dots may be in the near future...) 

Still, for the first take, the end result isn't bad at all.  I snapped a few shots of the completed boxes on the completely unstyled shelves in my dining room.  I have a lot of space to fill.  I also still need to figure out how to turn the flash off on my camera. ,/,DA-da-dum,/,/ So much to do, so little time. I'll shut up now and let you look. 

You can also see the beginnings of my Jadeite collection... but that is a story for another time.  So what about you, are you inspired by other bloggers and bringing their look into your home?