As spring began to emerge this year, all around I was seeing people sprucing up the exteriors of their homes. So I felt inspired to join in on the fun! Since buying a home in January of last year, I still had yet to decide on whether to change a few smaller things such as the lighting on my front porch. I decided this would make a wonderful spring project for this lazy painter.
This post will explain how to start and finish a one day spring touch-up for your porch lighting. As a matter of fact, this post will work for any lighting that may need a COLOUR fix.
The items that are in my tool bag are as follows:
- READY from Velvet Finishes
- COLOUR of choice Luxurious Velvet Finishes
- Lint Free Cloth
- Windex
- Paper Towels
- Straight Razor for cleaning
- Step ladder
- 1.5” angled or straight Reviver paint brush from Velvet Finishes
- small detail brush from Hobby Lobby
- Two new bulbs
Step One: I always like to start by taking things apart when applicable. By breaking the object down, it gets a much better cleaning so that when we start painting, all the pieces and surfaces get a proper coat of paint.
After all the pieces are laid out, everything gets a good dousing of READY. READY is made specifically to prep furniture, so it cleans and conditions and removes all the unwanted grime. By spraying the lights with READY, I am cutting years of crud that have built up on the finish. After several minutes of allowing the READY to work, I take a paper towel and wipe them clean. I do a second treatment of READY, but this time I’m using a LINT FREE cloth to wipe them down.
Step Two: The glass panes are caked with bugs and pollen and dirt. So gross! Windex will have them looking new in no time. Make sure to finish with a dry paper towel to avoid streaks!
Step Three: Shake! Shake! Shake! Shake! your Velvet Finishes paint. I’m using a 1.5” Velvet Finishes Reviver brush. I allow the first coat to dry completely before applying a second. Considering that the base coat is black, two coats are great, but a third will be even better to make sure I get all the areas where there is a lot of detail in the wrought iron.
Step Four: Once every bit of the surface of each fixture is dry, reassemble them with the panes and new bulbs and rehang them. I’ve got the straight razor in case any paint ends up on the glass.
Step Five: Taa-daaaa!!! Step back and admire the power of paint!!!
After completing this project I am thrilled that I had not just gone and purchased new fixtures to replace these. I love these lights and the drama they possess. What’s the old saying? They just don’t make ‘em like this anymore!
The one step I did not include, and I would recommend this for those who want a perfect, like new finish, is using a wire brush and/or sanding some of the older paint that is flaking or otherwise weathered. However, my fixtures did not have this kind of wear because they don’t have southern exposure and they are covered from direct elements. So, those fixtures that are exposed might need some extra prepping.
Would love to see your projects’ befors and afters! And would you go with the traditional black on fixtures like this? Or would you have chosen another COLOUR?