3 Simple Spray Paint Ideas That Instantly Update Your Home!

Sticking close to home the past few months has given me the time to start scheming up some plans for our house in N.C that I’m pretty excited about! While most of the big projects are going to have to wait until next year because of the big B word (budget), I’ve jumped into making several small, simple updates to make it feel less dated.

This past week I went to work on our family room which has great bones with tall ceilings and beautiful arched built-in bookcases but is also a bit stuck in the ’90s with ornate scrollwork on the fireplace and shiny brass accents on both the fan and fireplace:

By removing the ornamental fireplace appliques and knocking out three simple spray painting projects, it’s a few steps closer to the room I envision it to be:

The spray painting projects I did included (1) spray painting the brass accents on our fireplace, (2) spray painting the brass accents on the ceiling fan, and (3) spray painting the yellowed recessed lighting trim. I’ll walk you through exactly how I did each of these projects but first, do you want to take a quick tour of the room?? (post includes affiliate links; full disclosure statement available {here})

It’s far from done (decorating the shelves, adding new cabinet pulls, painting the walls, refinishing the hardwoods, & swapping out the vertical blinds for new ones are just a few of the things on my to-do list) but I’m loving the direction that it’s heading in! The base for the room is {this pretty blue & cream rug} that I have in the 8 x 10 size – I absolutely love the color and pattern and the fringed ends:

The blue in the rug is similar to the color that I used for painting the accent wall in my youngest daughter’s room and works well with pretty much any other colors. It’s actually 60% off right now with code MOM60 but is sold out in several sizes. It also comes in a dark navy option that you can see {here}. 

Eventually we will have our nice sectional from CT in this space but since we didn’t want to be sitting on the floor for the next year we bought {this inexpensive IKEA sectional}. We had the sofa version of it in our living room in CT and were very happy with it – the slipcovers wash really well so it takes away the fear of having white furniture. The pillows on it are {these 24″ blue plaid pillows}, {these block print rose colored pillows}, and {this blue tasseled pillow} in the corner. I hunted all over for an inexpensive round coffee table and chose {this whitewashed coffee table} that’s a great looking piece for the price:

We have a ton of roses blooming in our yard so I clipped a few to place in {this blue and white striped vase} on top of the coffee table:

And last but not least I added {this round rattan mirror} above our fireplace:

And with that, let’s move on to sharing the step by step of the three spray painting projects that helped transform this space!

1. Spray Painting The Brass Accents on Our Dated Fireplace

Some day we’ll give our fireplace a big makeover, replacing the brown marble with something that’s more my style, but until then I knew a few quick updates would make it feel a whole lot less dated. The first thing I did was remove the large decorative wood applique in the center of the fireplace:

I used a putty knife and a hammer to get behind the applique and pry it off the face of the fireplace,

filled any gashes and scratches with wood filler, sanded smooth, and then repainted it (luckily the previous home owners left the old paint behind!). Then I moved on to spray painting the ’90s brass trim on our fireplace. First I removed the whole front cover (it was as easy as lifting it up and then away from the rest of the fireplace):

To prep it for painting, I lightly sanded the brass parts with {this 220 grit sandpaper} (scuffing the surface with the sandpaper will help the paint adhere) and then cleaned the sanding dust and any grime off with a damp cloth (if it’s really dirty, give it a good scrub with soapy water first):

I then covered up everything but the brass parts I needed to spray with painter’s tape (I just used the tape I already had but {this delicate surface tape} is probably best):

Honestly if I were to do it again, I might go ahead and prep and spray the entire front except for the screen because even though the existing black parts of my fireplace front were in good shape, after spray painting the brass some of the existing black areas looked a little dingy in comparison to the freshly painted ones.

I used {this spray paint} in a Bar-B-Que black (a matte finish) which is specifically made to be used on surfaces exposed to high heat like fireplaces and grills:

Unlike many other paints, you don’t need to use a paint primer first (the instructions actually say priming is NOT recommended). If you’re spraying outside, be sure you do it on a day that there isn’t much wind. Using appropriate protective gear (eye protection, mask, etc.) and after shaking the can thoroughly, I applied my first coat of spray paint. You want to hold the spray paint can about 12-16″ away from what you’re spraying, moving the spray can back and forth the entire time to apply just a thin coat. This is what it looked like after the first coat:

The recoat time for this spray paint is very different from what’s typical with paint you’re putting on your walls. You need to recoat within an hour OR after 48 hours – so basically if you haven’t recoated within an hour of the first coat, you need to then wait two days to recoat! The paint dries to touch pretty quickly (about 15-30 minutes) so I did a second thin coat 15 minutes after the first. Once your last coat is dry to touch, remove your painter’s tape from any areas you were protecting with it. 

If this is the only part of the fireplace that you needed to paint, you’re done but my fireplace also had a single brass strip at the top of the fireplace opening that I had to spray in place. I taped up newspaper surrounding the entire area (and probably went overboard but better safe than sorry!):

and then did the same sanding and cleaning prep as before and gave it two coats of spray paint. After everything was thoroughly dry I rehung the front fireplace piece and…. we’re done!! Here’s another look at the “before”:

and here’s the “after”…

And now on to the last two spray paint projects – these tutorials will be QUICK because I used the same basic steps as I did when I painted the fireplace. 

2. Spray Painting Brass Ceiling Fan Accents

The ceiling fan in our family room was pretty dated too with shiny brass accents:

Painting the brass accents white to make it an all-white fan was an easy DIY that made a big difference! I unscrewed all five fan blades where they connect to the fan at the base and then once they were down, I unscrewed the brass pieces from the blades. That left just the round brass piece on the base of the fan that had four screws connecting it:

These are the six pieces ready for some spray paint!:

I used the same exact method as the fireplace but used {this spray paint} in white (you wouldn’t need to use heat resistant spray paint for this project but I had bought it to use on our recessed lights so just used what I had). The only thing you have to do differently with this spray painting project is to also spray paint the brass fan screws that you removed to take these pieces off. I’ve found that the easiest way to do that is to stick them into a piece of styrofoam or a small empty cardboard box to keep them upright while you spray the screw heads:

After spraying 2-3 thin coats on everything (be sure you get all sides that will show)…

I let everything thoroughly dry and then reassembled the fan. It made SUCH a big difference! Here’s a reminder of the “before”:

and here’s the “after”:

Now on to spray painting project #3…

3. Spray Painting Recessed Lighting Trim

All of the recessed lighting in our home has either gold or yellowed trim including those in our family room:

You can buy replacement trim but with over 50 recessed lights in our house, that would cost hundreds of dollars. I decided to try spray painting them instead and it was SO easy! After removing the trim just follow the same steps as the fireplace and fan projects – lightly sand, clean, spray paint (using {this high heat spray paint} in white), and then recoat. The difference between the old lighting trim and the newly painted trim is pretty huge:

I had several people recommend an inexpensive spray can trigger like {this one} which saves your finger if you’re doing a lot of spray painting – I ordered one to use for spray painting the rest of the recessed light trim in our home and will let you know what I think!

I ended up painting all eight of the recessed lights in our family room plus the ceiling fan with just a single bottle of spray paint – not bad for only about $5!

Scroll & Click/Tap to Shop Our Family Room:

I hope you’re inspired to make one of these quick and easy updates! If you want to see more spray painting projects, check out {this one} where I sprayed the metal hardware for our closet makeover.

I’m off to keep enjoying my I’m-not-stepping-foot-in-the-kitchen day of pampering for Mother’s Day! I hope all of you who are mothers or love a child with a mother’s heart have a wonderful day as well! A special shout-out to my own mom who is as selfless and caring as they come – thank you for all that you do!!