Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Garage Face Lift-For FREE!

The garage isn't the main part of the house... and yet it is important. It was needing a face lift, so we gave it one. Our garage gets a lot of use.... and sometimes we even park the vehicle in there!!!!  :)  It is a place with paints, freezer, coolers, garden stuff, wood and more.  Over the years we have added shelves... our sons have hooked shelves together, used up old wood for more shelves... and more.....they were mostly wood ones, but they didn't match... some were painted, some were raw wood and none of it matched.




 You can see here that there is bare wood... old bare wood, and painted wood... just a mixture. I decided to paint it all one color figuring that would be better than the mixture of colors.

First of all, we needed to prime the bare wood.... so we picked some really bright yellow/green paint that I got for free at a garage sale, but it is really too bright for our house. It worked well as a primer coat. So did a couple of other odd paints.

We put everybody to work on this... we handed out lots of paint brushes and had a family painting "party".  :)
 
 You can see more of the shelving... it works, but there are a lot of different finishes and colors. We started at one side and kept emptying shelves and painting... it was a last minute kind of job.  :)

While the priming was being done, I was grabbing cans of paint off of the shelves and dumping them into a five gallon bucket. Some were parts of cans from paint jobs long done... others were free paints... there was quite a mixture. Some were ceiling flat paints, some glossy, some eggshell... I dumped and stirred with a long piece of wood... our youngest daughter helped me with this part also.  I dumped several kinds of paint in and stirred to see what color emerged. :)  I slowed down on the darker colors.... and ended up with a light green paint. .


 
 These first pictures look really light colored, but it was a little darker after it dried. Would I have chosen this color if I could have picked ANYthing I wanted to? No, probably not.... but it worked out fine......

 Here you can see that we still have the mess at the end. :)

I knew having all one color would look nice, but I was still really pleased with how much it helped the looks of things.

Here, you can also see the 5 gallon bucket with paint.



This color is probably more accurate for the finished color than the other pictures. We were all surprised at the color that emerged... and I wish I would have taken a picture of all the colors of paints used... there were whites, grays, pink, green, blues, pale yellow... and there was even a flourescent paint!

We ended up painting the whole garage all the same color... and we still have a gallon or so left for touch up.... things look better.... and the best part was that it was FREE. And we all worked together. It was a satisfying project.... and my husband bought pizza afterwards, which was a treat for all of us.... we were all really tired! 





Shared on:


Dishing It and Digging It
Inspiration Spotlight-Dear Creatives
Home Sweet Home
Foodie Friday and Everything Else
Inspire Me Tuesday
Cooking and Crafting w/ j and j
Art of Homemaking Monday
Modest Mom Monday



Featured on:

 

 
 
 

34 comments:

  1. Looks good! I just recently spent a weekend adding some shelves to my garage to get junk up off the floor! Now I can actually find stuff that I need :) Getting the car in there is still a long way off though. Maybe one day...
    www.SunshineDad.tk #BrilliantBlogPosts

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We put the minivan in the garage when snow or ice is expected... or hail.... otherwise, not usually. :) And when it isn't in there, the space sort of fills in. It is certainly an ongoing task. :) Thank you for visiting.

      Delete
  2. It looks very good. What a wonderful way to use up your old paints. And I think it is so great that the whole family got involved.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you... it sure was nice to be able to throw out several cans and get them off of the shelves. :) Also nice to do a project together. :) Thank you for visiting.

      Delete
  3. What a great way to get the family involved for a clean up project! I know it must do your heart good to go in the garage a and see everything in order! It would mine :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It would do my heart good to go into the garage and see everything in order.... it is painted, but not all in order yet. :) With so many projects going on.... fixing a bike, doing a wood project, regular life... the garage is a place of constant change at our house. sigh. I was glad to get the painting all done though... makes things so much nicer looking to have that continuity of color. :) I am thankful to have a big family and am not going to overstress about having the garage all cleaned up... most of the time anyway. :) Thank you for visiting.

      Delete
  4. Really made a difference to paint it all the same color. Looks more organized and complete. Great family project too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it definitely is more organized.... the all one color helped. :) Thank you for stopping by.

      Delete
  5. Wow! It looks fantastic. What great storage!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I love how it brightened things up! Glad you visited. :)

      Delete
  6. Great transformation! I have a lot of partial cans of paint, but I never thought to mix them! Thanks for the idea!

    I found you on the Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you... it sure looks better now. :) I hope you find a way to use up that paint also. :) Thank you for stopping by.

      Delete
  7. Oh wow! What a wonderful transformation! Good for you!

    Wishing you a lovely day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you.... we are enjoying it. :) Thank you for stopping by. :)

      Delete
  8. I'm going to remember your wonderful ideas when we move. A great post!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so glad they were a help... I do plan to do this again since it worked so well this time. :) Thank you for stopping by.

      Delete
  9. What a timely post Joy. I garage is a mess and we decluttered! We've just got to find suitable storage for all the bits and pieces we're keeping and I'm the same as you. We always like to pick up free things and reuse what we've got. You've given me a lot of inspiration. I'm featuring this one over at Thriving on Thursdays this week. Thanks for linking up and I hope to see you again.

    Anne @ Domesblissity

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds like we are "kindred spirits" in this area! :) Thankk you for featuring this... what a blessing... it was so nice to have you visit.... and thank you for the link up party... :)

      Delete
  10. Looks great! Painting is always so rewarding since there is a visible difference:) Also, the cleaning off of shelves feels good too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It does help and feel good... painting is such a quick and easy way to brighten things up. :) Thank you for visiting.

      Delete
  11. It looks great! What a huge difference just a little paint makes! Now are you ready to come do mine? lol I'm only joking!

    Wishing you a blessed week!

    Much love,

    Lysa xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It does make such a huge difference!!!! Cute on doing yours!!! I just barely can make time for mine!! :) Life stays busy, doesn't it? Thank you for stopping by. :)

      Delete
  12. Hi Joy, what a great project so neat and tidy and well organized. I love this for the garage. Paint can make all the difference. Thanks for sharing and the inspiration.
    I so enjoyed my visit and now your newest follower.
    Thank you for stopping by and your kind comment.
    Hugs and Blessings

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi... so nice to meet you and receive your sweet comment. :) Some paint sure can make a lot of difference and cheers things up. :) Welcome... so glad you are following.... what a blessing to have you. :)

      Delete
  13. Replies
    1. Thank you! I sure am enjoying having it done! Thank you for visiting. :)

      Delete
  14. I love these kinds of projects! It feels so good afterward to have a fresh look and gives you more of a desire to organize and maintain the garage now! As far as the mixing paint goes, we do that too!!! Hubby will offer to paint something but never can promise what color it will be... Needs to be a leftover concoction though to keep that budget smiling :) Thanks for sharing this on the Art of Home-Making Mondays Joy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am glad to hear that someone else does this too!!!! :) I was so glad to get rid of several cans of paint from the shelves... AND not to have to pay another $25-$30 for each gallon of paint! We probably used almost 4 gallons! It does save a lot of money. I do watch at garage sales for nice paint... and for colors that can easily be mixed to something else. :) Thank you for visiting.

      Delete
  15. Wow, what a difference! I love how clean and bright everything looks. I agree, even the garage needs a face lift from time-to-time :) Hugs to you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do too... it really helped. :) Thank you for visiting.

      Delete
  16. such a pretty color from mixing free pants!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you... I was a bit careful of what paints I used... trying to envision what it would look like, so it wouldn't always be pretty to just mix paints, but I was so glad this turned out well. Thank you for visiting. :)

      Delete
  17. It all looks great, I really like the shelving and the colour is amazing considering where it came from. Thanks for sharing this at Good Morning Mondays, and for encouraging us to give things a go. Blessings

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you... it was a blessing to get that job done! :) Thank you for the link up party.

      Delete