So John went for a run, and I painted something behind his back. Let me explain. We usually have a “full agreement” agreement when it comes to decor (which means we can’t buy or change a thing unless we’re both totally on board, which keeps us from holding something against another person for years like a recliner that you hate but the hubs just had to have, etc). But I tend to bend the rules when it comes to things that can be undone if John doesn’t like them. I figure in that case, since it’s 100% reversible, and I’d be the one spending the time reversing it if John didn’t agree with my choice, that I don’t have much to lose except for the time it takes to do and undo something. Which is nothing compared to the high I get from doing it while he’s gone. Haha. And the last time I did something without asking first (which admittedly wouldn’t have been the easiest thing to undo, but since our other two bathrooms were backsplashless I was confident he’d be on board) it worked out swimmingly as Mr Petersik kissed my cheek and told me I was a home improvement goddess. Ok so I made up that last part. He probably smirked and agreed that what I did “wasn’t bad” and only admitted he loved it hours later after getting used to the idea that I took a crowbar to the walls again. But anyway, back to what I painted.
I had grabbed a little jar of Liquitex Soft Body Acrylic paint in Cobalt Turquoise at Michael’s after mumbling something about wanting to get back to painting (I had a 50% coupon so it came to $7 and some change).
Didn’t seem to catch John’s interest at the time. But then again, he didn’t know that I had plans to paint a light fixture of ours. Yes, while sitting on The American Dream (aka: Karl, our new much-loved sectional) the other night, my eyes kept wandering away from the “Real” Housewives of Beverly Hills and over to the brass and glass pendant light over the table in the corner of the room.
Granted, the lighting situation in the living room is extremely awkward (that’s the only light fixture in the entire room and it’s essentially in the corner). So we’ll definitely be bringing in some additional light sources as the space evolves, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to “tweak” the pendant we already have. Just for fun. Especially for cheap. So when John ducked out for a run while Clara was down for her morning nap, I slinked off to get my little jar of Cobalt Turquoise acrylic paint. And I squirted a little dab of it onto a plate and watered it down a bit thanks to a nearby cup of water.
Then I just turned off the light switch, removed the big round light bulb (so I could get to the entire inside of the glass shade with my sponge brush) and brushed on some of the watered down turquoise acrylic paint all over the inside of the shade. I used vertical stripes of slightly watered down paint, going with the vertical veins in the light, which left me with a nice even application.
Surprisingly, it began to look like a turquoise glass shade with a nice soft effect – since I painted the inside of the shade instead of the outside, which would probably have looked a lot harsher and less convincing. See how diffused and subtle it started to look from the outside of the shade?
And once it was all painted (before John stumbled in all sweaty and surprised) I was left with this:
It’s not perfect, but I think that’s part of the charm. And it’s 100% removable, which is nice too (scrubbing it down with a sponge is all it would take to undo it if the mood strikes). So it’s renter friendly.
Admittedly this could have been a disaster. Well, not a permanent one since I knew it was easy enough to undo, but going into it I didn’t really know if the paint would bead up and drip down the glass shade (it probably would have if I watered it down too much) or if it would look streaky, heavy, and completely unconvincing (it probably would have if I hadn’t watered it down at all). Happily, it stayed right in place and dried nice and evenly, for a surprisingly believable colored glass effect. It’s a little varied looking, but it’s kind of a soft vintage effect. Honestly, when the light’s on even an Expert Light Studier (that’s a job right?) would have a hard time knowing that the color was painted on. It looks just like an old turquoise glass shade.
Oh and I gave it a few hours of drying time before putting the bulb back in and turning it on, just so the thin layer of slightly watered down paint had time to “cure.” I had vague worries of the paint somehow heating up and melting/dripping all over the place when the light was on, but it was on for about ten hours straight yesterday (I decided to “test it” before I blogged about it for obvious reasons) and no dripping or streaking has occurred at all.
Looks like it’s there for the long haul. And by long haul I mean until we replace that fixture and rectify the lighting scenario in that room as a whole. And guess what? Hubs likes it! Especially when the light’s on and it’s all soft and sweet, like a glowing turquoise beacon of love. Ok, that’s going too far, but he really does like it.
I did briefly wonder if it posed any kind of heat hazard, but I figure since paper lampshades are a common item, and they don’t actually catch fire, dried paint on a pendant that doesn’t actually touch the bulb shouldn’t be an issue. Oh and one tip to anyone crazy enough to follow suit would be to move any furniture that’s under your pendant (or toss down a drop cloth or painting sheet) because I did notice tiny turquoise splatters all over the table (which thankfully was painted and poly’d, so they wiped right off).
Now all I have to do is tackle that dated brass chain for a full light makeover (some oil-rubbed bronze spray paint might look nice once we add some oil-rubbed brozne curtain rods above the window and the sliders with some bright punchy curtains). Sure we might swap it out later, but I’m already enjoying the view a lot more in the meantime. Plus I just get a rise out of keeping John on his toes. Next time he goes for a run who knows what I’ll do. Haha. Anyone else have any while-the-hubs-was-out adventures to share? Come on, I can’t be the only one.
meghan s says
Sherry, not on the light subject at all…I’m totally addicted to Real Housewives of BH, and I don’t know why. I don’t watch any of the other ones, but I can’t get enough of the BH show….ooh and its Thursday today! My hubby gives me a hard time about watching that “crap”. Anyway, nice to know there’s another fan out there!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yeah- after a long day of blogging and DIYing I like to let my mind take a little break and veg out with some nutty reality TV.
xo,
s
Katie says
Instead of painting the chain, it might look cool with a homemade cord cover made with a charcoal fabric to match the new sectional….or maybe a fun pattern….just a thought!
Camille @ The Vintique Object says
No, no, no! Don’t spray paint the brass! It’s totally perfect and nicely aged. Although, I’ve been reading long enough to know that you all are adults and make decisions for yourselves. But I love the brass. It is so two-thousand teens.
The lampshade looks amazing!
Steph at Modern Parents Messy Kids says
Looking at the before I would have been convinced there would be no way to stylishly salvage it – good work.
Stephanie says
I am constanly rearranging furniture and switching whole rooms(tada, the living room is now the dinig room) while my husband is working. Now he knows when I am staring off in space that the wheels are turning. He is in trouble when we get a house!
Christina says
My husband is in the Navy and is gone anywhere from a week to 6 months at a time. At different times when he’s been gone I’ve painted our living room red, refinished our dining room table, ripped out rooms full of carpet, and installed several new light fixtures. The next time he leaves I plan on repainting the living room, and buying new slipcovers for the furniture. I love surprising him when he comes home, plus it keeps me busy while I’m missing him.
jane davila says
Oh, I do this all the time!! The biggest “while he was out” project was when he was in Peru for a week. I totally redid our bedroom. Like your living room it was super dark and had little/no lighting. I added recessed lighting in the ceiling (I admit that I did wish he was there when I came across the mouse mummy while crawling around in the attic, shudder). I painted, bought a couple of runners, re-arranged and added artwork, hung shelves on one wall, swapped out accessories and bed linens, whipped up some new throw pillows, and installed a closet system. It took countless trips to Home Depot and two trips to Ikea. I was in the midst of re-doing the bathroom when he got back. Good timing on his part since I’m more comfortable with electrical work than plumbing!!
Ashley says
Love this post! Sherry you are so creative. It makes me laugh reading all the things people do when their hubbies are out. I painted our kitchen yesterday and my hubby was pleasantly surprised when he came home. Now granted, it’s just a galley kitchen so the wall space is minimal but still. Shock value is half the fun. :)
Jennifer says
…”like a glowing turquoise beacon of love.”
Oh my goodness, that got me cracking up. I read it and was like, she talks just like me!
Love it!!
Sammy says
have you thought about painting the gold hardware silver? I think that would look even more updated and great with the turquoise.
P.S. Love your blog!!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Sammy,
We tend to go for oil-rubbed bronze curtain rods throughout the house (we did it in our last house and loved the look we’ve already added them to the nursery and the bedroom) so that finish just pops up above silver in our minds- but it definitely another viable option for sure!
xo,
s
Kel says
My friend just painted her bedroom while her husband was away for a week. He was plesantly surprised with the result and said he would happily go on another boys week away so she could do more surprises around the house.
Whitney says
Oh my gosh, what a great idea. My husband and I are looking to add some fun new light fixtures to our house and I think this is an inexpensive way to give any room that little POP you’re looking for!
Jordan says
It looks so cute and vintage! I love it! You are so creative. Love the color too. It will look perfect with the oil-rubbed bronze chain.
Anna says
I confess, I done things on the sly. My husband hunts and one weekend while he was away, I decided to paint stripes on the living room walls. The colors were only a couple shades apart, but still ….. I felt so naughty!
Carol-Anne: Use the Good Dishes! says
That light really looks amazing! My poor husband leaves for work in the morning and comes home to find I’ve completely re-painted and re-arranged a room …with all the art and accessories in place! He sometimes has to look around for a few minutes to tell that the room is a whole different colour! (sorry, Canadian spelling)
Jen_nifer says
Never apologize for Canadian spelling! :)
Tania says
LOVE it! You really are a home improvement goddess.
Angela B says
When I was a teenager my parents were going to redo the bathroom. My mum and I decided to start the process by demolishing the linen cupboard while Dad was at work. When he came home he mentioned that he had been thinking about keeping the cupboard. Oops…
jessie says
Sorry this one’s a miss for me. Nice idea but falls a bit short on the end result. If you paint the chain a brushed nickel or silver I think it will look much better.
Mary @ Front Porch Designs says
That is genius, Sherry. It looks very authentic. You could probably create a kind of stained glass with that same idea.
kim says
I was skeptical at first, but it’s cute. We already have some oil rubbed bronze paint for our entryway lights. I don’t do electrical though, so hubby will have to take them down before I get to work…as far as surprising him, I removed kitchen cabinet doors once for open shelving. He just thought it was weird, but he didn’t complain.
Katie Heitgerd says
My hubby and I try to do most of the house-changing as a team, but my mother had a much different view on things. Anytime she wanted to make a change that was fairly reversible, she’d take advantage of my dad’s occasional business trips. She’d have me help her relocate furniture, sew curtains and paint walls while he was gone, knowing he’d just agree with her once he got back in town. It was her way of “showing” him that she was right. We always had fun trying to beat the clock, and I loved having a surprise for daddy when he got back in town. Oh the fond memories of child labor :)
RLR says
My mom helped me with a bathroom re-do while my hubs was gone for a weekend. He wasn’t thrilled that we’d done it without telling him, but he didn’t mind the end result.
Amy says
My husband is afraid to leave me alone because he knows something will be different when he gets back. It’s usually along the lines of decorating, but one time I installed a new light over the kitchen sink. I was pretty proud of myself!
Amy R says
My husband is not handy at all, and does not want to be involved in my little house projects. He did however have words to say after I took a reciprocating saw to the pre-fab shower in our master bathroom. He’s been afraid to leave town on business ever since!
AmandaT says
Like a previous poster, my husband travels a good bit for business and I love doing things while he’s gone then waiting for him to notice when he gets home. Usually it’s something small like painting/repainting a piece of furniture. He’s actually out of the country for two weeks at the moment so my current project is much bigger. I’m in the process of repainting our whole kitchen, including all the cabinets (using your tutorial, of course)! It’s a big job but it looks great already and I know he’ll be so surprised when he gets back! I can’t wait!
Kiran says
I hope to paint a bright orange accent wall in our home (without the Hubby) someday ;)
Tonja Morris says
My hubs changes things while I am out! He is always moving the furniture and rearranging accessories.
Jen_nifer says
I haven’t done it in a couple of years. I’m sure I started some projects while my husband was away before we had a child though.
More memorable was when I was in my early twenties still at home and my Dad went away for 4 days or so. He hadn’t done much with the house in the nearly 10 years we had lived there, and my sister and I tackled the powder room. We took it from boring beige to deep red, repainted the ceiling and painted the trim a brown that gave it a wood-trim kind of feel. It took us painting morning and night to get the 6 coats of red on. He just loved it! A year or two later we got our brother and a couple of others involved when he went to Florida for a month and redid the kitchen!
erika says
while the husband is out could be a show at my house…
the most recent one was rearranging the living room furniture to create a “sitting area” which is a big deal because the TV (and thus espn) is there. But I hated the couch and chairs pushed against the wall because it was so yucky & boring but the husband didn’t understand couches creating dividers in rooms… so while he was out I manned up and did some HEAVY lifting.
and he loved it. :)
erika @ honeyandhusband.com
Katie says
Speaking of spray painting light fixtures- We spray painted 2 chandeliers this weekend with the Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint and they turned out great! Very happy. We just cleaned them, no primer necessary.
We also tried spray painting some door knobs. I cleaned them and started to sand them, but noticed it was scratching the door knob, so I just started spraying. The spray paint bubbled up (we had really really old brass knobs). I decided to sand them, clean them, then spray the 1,2,3, primer and it worked great! The first coat of bronze spray paint looked perfect…now I just need warmer weather to put the second coat on! FYI for when you spray your knobs (since I stole the idea from you guys :))
YoungHouseLove says
Love it! Thanks for the tips!
xo,
s
diane says
Love what you did while the hubby was out playing. I would disguise that chain with a burlap chain cover. Nice job…btw, also love the ram head and since you dont live in earthquake country I would put it above the bed, not weird at all.
Love all your updates.
Christy says
Ya know…a cool no sew chain cover after the spray paint may look pretty cool.
Here is a link a post on the one I made.
http://kaiserfamilyupdates.blogspot.com/2010/10/i-love-burlap.html
Morgan G says
I need a list of quick projects that can be ‘pulled off’ while Hubs is away. I always start something far too ambitious, don’t have time to finish it and end up getting caught with a crooked piece of art on the wall and spackle in my hair.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, check out our Projects page in the “one hour” category. Good luck!!!
xo,
s
Lisa says
My husband left for work one morning with the kitchen fully intact. When he came home, I had removed an entire wall of cabinets and a very heavy countertop and piled them up in the living room. He was astonished as he had no idea that I wanted to spruce up the kitchen.
Ashlee says
I LOVE doing things like that! Mine aren’t really so drastic, but I love swapping out decorations, hanging a new picture, or something similar and waiting for my husband to notice.
Most of the time, I get too excited and wind up saying, “Notice anything different?”
I LOVE that game. For some reason, my husband hates it.
Dmarie says
wow, well done!
Amanda says
My husband went to work for a few hours on a Saturday morning. When he came home, I had made a huge dent (pun intended) on gutting our upstairs bathroom. I had removed the paneling from the walls – just to see what was under them – and them somehow the drywall fell off….I honestly didn’t plan on going that far but once you get started demo’ing, it’s hard to stop :)
Right now we’re down to bare studs and a lath cieling. The only thing left in the bathroom that functions is the toilet – although no one wants to use it. The old claw foot tub is still sitting there until we can muster up the strength to drag it downstairs and out of the house.
We’re stuck as far as progress goes right now because we can not find a plumber to help us out. No rush though – It will get finished when it gets finished (hopefully by the end of March). I just picked up an antique (like 1880’s) dresser with mirror today to turn into the vanity…..I am trying to get all of my ‘supplies’ together before we start putting it back together anyways – that way everything is done right and fits in our tiny, 5’x7′ bathroom :)
Heather says
I’ve been known to completely redecorate when my husband is at work…I push furniture all over until it’s just the right effect that I’m going for…change is good every once in a while!!
Stacey says
I remoled our kitchen while my husband was in Canada for training. I ripped out the sink, painted the cabinets, tore down the backplash and put up a new one….he was VERY surprised!
tiffany says
this is an amazing idea!!! love it, can’t wait to use it when we are in a house again…
Jenny says
Projects that I’ve completed while the husband was away? Or sleeping?
Well, there was the “I’m just going to paint the entry way” that continued onto two other accent walls in the living room. I think he was home for this, just consumed with something else.
Then, was while he was sleeping off a hangover, I finally decided on a color for the kitchen walls, ran to the store, got supplies and by the time he woke up I was 1/2 way done painting the kitchen.
His weekend surf trips are usually perfect for me to knock out small projects. Initially, he was rather frustrated but over the last two years or so, he’s come to accept that if he sleeps too long, or stays out too late, the house might look different or the furniture will be rearranged.
For the major renovations we picked out paint and trim and carpet in unison. But in the end, I am still a firm believer of asking for forgiveness rather than permission. :-)
Marilyn says
Once when the Hubs was gone for the weekend, I replaced the kitchen floor. He came in at midnight and asked me what happened to the floor. The old one was ugly I told him. He liked it, zoo it was ok. The next time I started to repainted the kitchen, didn’t like the color, and repainted it the original color before he got home. That one I won’t do again! It was only one wall, but lesson learned. Love the lampshade!
LezRenovate says
That is a sweet re-do. I have on more than one occasion smashed something out while my partner was out. In last week’s blog post at http://www.lezrenovate.com, I remembered my grandmother famously smashing down an exterior wall in her home, in order to expand into the sunroom, while my grandfather was out getting a haircut…
Love your blog! Hope you get a chance to look at some of our silly lez renovating videos
Emma says
In 2007 I painted a quote on the wall above our bed (in a rental, but we had the wall paint to cover it up when we left)..
Last year I painted our fridge with chalkboard paint … Hubby loves it though and I love surprising him!!
Bonnie Dickerson says
I’d just spray paint that brass monstrosity a flat white. The glass would really pop then.
Emelina says
Does the acrylic dry the same (when mixed with water) as it would normally? I “stained” the glass on my front door with glass paints and it came out cool (chips rarely) but I’m wondering if acrylic is better. There are more colors too…
YoungHouseLove says
Glass paint is probably much better since it’s meant for this project. It didn’t react oddly mixed with water (artists water it down all the time) but glass paint might be the best idea. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
teapotrose says
Hi, I’m sure glad that you guys won the competition over at Apartment Therapy or I might never have found you! This is exactly what I need to revamp my bathroom light fixtures. I was just thinking over the weekend, as I was lying in bed, that I need to do something about those darn light fixtures and this is perfect! I can do them a vintage green to go with the green glass knobs on the vanity and shower curtain hooks. Thanks so much for the idea!! :)
YoungHouseLove says
So glad you found us! And good luck with your light!
xo,
s
heather s. says
It looks a little 80s to me. A better way to upgrade would have been to paint the brass portions.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s still on the agenda as we mentioned in the post! Stay tuned…
xo,
s
teapotrose says
My light fixture is an icky 80’s light that I got at a yard sale when we moved here 6 years ago, however, it looked way better than the hideous 60’s fixture that was not a “cool classic” style, just tacky. Tinting the glass green and doing rubbed bronze paint over the bright brass ought to bring us at least up to the 90’s and maybe even the new millennium! :)
Gin says
So….in the Washington Post pics, is this fixture back to being clear? What happened to it?
YoungHouseLove says
Yup, sadly in pics it was creating an odd bluish tint on that corner of the room, so it just had to go. But happily it only took about twenty seconds and a wet rag!
xo,
s