Sunday, October 24, 2010

Chippy white paint can be bad...

I haven't been in the mood to decorate our front porch for Halloween or fall.  It's usually done by now but with warmer temperatures and some problems with the porch, I just wasn't inspired to get it done.  So, we decided to tackle the problems and get the porch ready for fall.

Let's start with the problems:
We have a ceiling fan on the porch which is great.  However, the fan used to be white but now has become tinged with yellow and really rusted.  It's an outdoor fan but the amount of rust it has would make you think otherwise.  I figured I could give this a fresh coat of paint and it would be fine.

The ceiling on the porch is white and shows a lot of dirt.  I've always wanted a pale blue ceiling on the front porch so our plan is to paint this.

If you've followed my blog, you know I love some chippy white paint.  However, chippy white paint on the front porch looks like we just don't take care of our house.  It also allows the wood to rot.  So, this piece of wood trim will get replaced and we will repaint.

Every speck of trim needs to be sanded and repainted.

These are our columns on the front porch.  Houses in our neighborhood that have columns are all painted in two different colors.  There is the base color that's on the rest of the house (the siding areas) and there's the trim. You can see my next door neighbor's house and their two-toned columns.

I have never liked these columns painted two colors and over the years have grown to hate them.  I've always wanted all white columns.

So, let's get to work and make some changes.  First up, take down the fan and paint it white.
As my husband carried the fan to the backyard for painting, he accidentally hit the blades against something and broke a couple. 
That could be bad...OR it could give me reason to buy a new fan!

Machine Age Galvanized Ceiling Fan

I've been eyeing this galvanized metal fan.  Maybe I could get this instead.  Well, no not exactly.  With a $350. price tag, I'm just going to have to admire it from afar.

So, here we are with no fan.  It's so sad.

On a brighter note, here we are with all white columns.  Woo hoo!

These look so much better and fresher and make the columns more prominent.

We're painting the ceiling a pale grayish-blue.  The color is "Ozone" by Behr's vintage collection.
Now, about that ceiling fan.  We bought a package of replacement fan blades and a couple of cans of aluminum spray paint.  For about $30. bucks, we made our own galvanized metal fan.

There it is...the pale gray-blue ceiling and galvanized fan.

This looks sooooo much better.

Pretty cool, huh?  and so much cheaper.

From the front: blue ceiling, metal fan, fresh white trim and white columns.

Pale blue porch ceilings are a southern thing.  It's supposed to help keep flying insects away.

Does it work? My husband dodged two wasps while he re-hung the fan.  Oh well, at least the porch looks prettier and has inspired me to get on with decorating for fall.  

spray paint party

4 comments:

  1. I love what you did to your porch. I especially like the ceiling fan. Beautiful.

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  2. Any directions for doing the ceiling fan. I'd really like to have a galvanized fan for my porch but can't afford the $350.00 either. I'm not a real do-it-yourselfer unless I have specific directions. Any help would be appreciated

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  3. Anonymous, I would email you directions but you have your settings set to "no reply". To paint the ceiling fan, I took it down and used a screwdriver to remove the blades. Using aluminum spray paint (you can see it in my post "Somebody Stop Me", I spray painted the blades on both sides. I think it took a couple of good coats. I then spray painted the rest of the fan and re-assembled the blades. I then hung it back up. That's it. It probably took about an hour not including drying time.

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  4. This is sooo beautiful!

    What about the holes in the ceiling fan? I chose the wrong color of fan (white instead of dark ... boo!) and can't convince the hubs that I can paint it the color I want it because he's worried about the holes ... did you do something to cover them or what?

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