Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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How To Spray Paint Metal Stools

Well, after reading every last one of the 750+ suggestions you guys left on this post (no doubt about it – there are definitely a million ways we could have gone with these guys!) and putting lots of thought into pretty much every possibility under the sun, we ended up going with our very first instinct. A chipper turquoise-y-teal tone.

StoolPaint Pinterst11

So here’s the rundown of how we transformed these basic $32 stools from an online supply store.

Stools Close On Backrest

The funny thing is that there were probably the most votes for blue from you guys too (closely followed by yellow). Although there were definitely suggestions for a ton of other options (four different colors, tones like orange/coral/purple/pink, upholstered cushions, seats painted a different color, dipped legs, an ombre effect, etc). But even before sharing our stool musings we found ourselves gravitating towards turquoise or teal. Especially since we already have green chairs that we painted and reupholstered for the office…

Office After Art

… and a yellow highchair for Clara that gets used in the dining room/living room (it’s not counter height, so it works better at normal tables than the kitchen peninsula, where we typically use a booster seat attached to one of our stools).

High Chair Done2

We decided not to make any final decisions until our rug arrived, and then to just follow our gut and pick a darn color already go with whatever we liked best. The truth is that a ton of other colors definitely could have worked (white cabinets & counters + gray tile + brown floors = a pretty neutral backdrop for any splash of color), so it really just came down to personal preference. I think we always would have done the “what if” thing if we hadn’t just followed our nose heart.

Kitchen Stools Straight On

We love how the color relates to the dark teal built-ins in the dining room without being too matchy-matchy, and even ties into the small pops of color on the open shelves. Although I’m sort of tempted to completely white-ify the stuff on the shelves and the counters (fewer pops of yellow and blue) so the stools can really be the star – just because a lot of the kitchen photos that I’ve pinned as inspiration with colored stools don’t usually have a lot of bold pops of color all over the rest of the room (although some have a few). So I’ll keep you posted as the accessories continue to evolve in here!

In the meantime, it’s an especially great upgrade when staring at the other side of the room from the stove. Without any penny tile to the ceiling or colorful shelf accessories, this side used to look sort of bland. We love how the new stool color makes it look alive, but not too clown-car-crazy. It just feels like us.

StoolPaint After From Stove111

The kitchen officially fits into the rest of our house, which has other bold pops of color going on in every room that we’ve tackled – like our teal guest room with a bright yellow rug, our gray living room with a bright green rug, our pink nursery with bold floral curtains, our stenciled office with green chairs and multicolored art, our gray-blue bedroom with a teal and charcoal rug, and our gray dining room with green curtains and dark turquoise built-ins.

And ultimately it was freeing to realize that the worst that could happen if we didn’t like our choice was that we’d repaint. Although I’ll admit that I’m very thankful that we like them this way (this wasn’t exactly a ten minute project). Haha. And luckily the veneer-ish brown seat took the new coat of paint really well, so the whole chair looks even and feels nice and durable. We opted to paint the brown part of the seat the same color just to keep things graphic and simple (we feared they might get too busy-looking with a brown seat and a blue painted frame).

StoolPaint Detail Backs In Row11

One of our favorite views of them is this one, which used to look sort of flat with the stools in their gray-with-brown-seats state…

Looking Into Kitchen1

… but now looks cheerful and less monochromatic to color lovers like us (thanks to those hot little turquoise gams).

StoolPaint After From Front Door11

Even the view into the dining room makes a lot more sense in person (now that the stools tie into the subtle pops of turquoise in the ikat curtains). It used to be dull with eight brown dining chairs in the background and four gray stools with brown seats in the foreground, so it’s nice to have broken things up a bit more with some color to set the stools apart. And someday we’ll figure those dining room chairs out once and for all. Haha.

Stools From Side

But I doth jabber on. Here’s how I got ‘er done.

1) I roughed them all up with 300 grit sandpaper. Just to give them a little tooth so they’d be more durable for the long-haul.

StoolPaint 2 Sanding

2) I used a liquid deglosser to remove all that sanding dust and further ready them for primer and paint (I like how it looks like I’m thumbless in both this photo and the one above it). We use a no-VOC deglosser called Crown’s Next that we got from Home Depot a while back for a few bucks.

StoolPaint 3 Deglossing

3) I sat them out in the yard on an old tarp and some cardboard (so their legs wouldn’t sink into the grass so they could be sprayed evenly).

StoolPaint 4 Ready For Spray

4) I misted them with very thin coats of spray primer until they had a nice even coverage (we generally love spraying metal since it takes paint really well – especially if it’s sanded, deglossed, primed, and painted in thin and even coats). You can check out some general spray painting tips of ours here.

StoolPaint 5 Spray Paint

5) I misted them with very thin coats of spray paint until they had nice even coverage. We went with Tropical Oasis by Valspar in a gloss finish (we liked that it had a fair amount of gray in it, while some other teal options looked a little too bright for us without any muted undertones to tie them into things like our gray wall of tile and our new scalloped rug). We applied around five super thin and even coats, beginning on the next coat pretty much as soon as the first one was done (light misty applications like that hold really well and don’t drip or peel like thicker ones tend to do).

StoolPaint 6 Spray Paint Blue11

6) I left them outside in the sun for 24 hours (after checking to be sure there was no rain in the forecast) so they could off-gas and cure up. Next they got brought into the sealed-off sunroom for another two full days, just so they could continue to cure up and let out any fumey smells before they were allowed into the house. Then finally (those few days felt like years of waiting) we got to bring them back into the kitchen and see how they looked. They should hold up for a nice long time (painted metal, when done correctly, can look great for decades). We’ll definitely keep you posted on how these guys do over time.

StoolPaint Detail Two Backs

And now for a budget breakdown:

  • 3 cans of primer + 3 cans of spray paint = $29
  • 300 grit sandpaper and liquid deglosser = $0 (already owned, but they might run you $6 if you have to buy ’em)
  • TOTAL: $29 (which meant each of my $32 stools got a $7 upgrade)

I totally think people would spend way more than $39 a pop for these chipper little stools at a furniture store. So, yay. As for a time breakdown…

  • Sanding and deglossing them all = 1 hour
  • Priming them all = 1.5 hours
  • Painting them all = 1.5 hours
  • TOTAL: Four hours (obviously with time in between steps since I primed during one Clara-nap and painted during another).

Speaking of the bean, Clara actually stopped to pet one and say “blue stool! so pretty! like a princess!” right after we brought them in. No idea why she equates blue stools with princesses, but we’ll take it. I gotta say that the kitchen finally feels semi-complete. Huzzah! And I might be imagining things, but proofing 352 pages of book layouts (not exaggerating) on our upgraded stools was a little less of a grind for some reason.

StoolPaint Detail Back Flowers

Maybe they have magical happy powers?

What have you guys been upgrading with paint or primer these days? Have you ever used a liquid deglosser? We used to be so scared of it since they seemed like it’d be fumey and burn your fingers off, but we love the stuff we use (and it has yet to remove my fingerprints – although it might have taken off my thumb for a few pics).

Comments

  2. Penni McNamara says

    LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! They look great…and I was sort of questioning those stools when you bought them. But of course, you turned them around and made them look great.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, yes we did but then we put the slipcovers back on so we could drag them outside for Clara’s party (and not worry about smears or stains thanks to the slipcovers) and we have yet to take them off and wash them. Haha. We’re slow…

      xo,
      s

  7. Melanie@MJ says

    I don’t think it’s possible to be sad or angry in your house, everything is just so happy! :) Love the stools and the color. Clara and her future siblings are going to love growing up in this house, awesome job YHL!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw thanks Melanie! Clara has definitely influenced our current house for the better (our first house was pretty neutral but we’re having so much fun diving into bolder colors here)!

      xo,
      s

  15. McKenzie says

    I love the choice! So cheery :) I wanted to ask how you keep your spray paint from peeling? Esp on surfaces where things sit on top of it. In my limited experience I usually get a few places that peel the paint off when I pick up whatever was sitting on the sprayed surface. Thanks for any advice :) Love you guys!!

    Reply

  16. Hannah Deutsch says

    Speaking of your book, did you see it’s listed for presale on Amazon?! Count me in! Super excited for it, and the stools look great!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, yeah- we keep holding off on mentioning it since there’s no pic and the copy still has to be updated, but the price is nice and low for preorder so we’re happy! Haha. Is it dorky that we preordered one?

      xo,
      s

    • Rosie says

      Ha, you’re number 18 in “Remodeling and Renovation” so a lot of us must have! Pretty good for a book without a cover!

    • Amanda says

      I pre-orderd mine the other day when I stumbled across it on Amazon. I can’t wait to get it!

    • stefanie says

      I thought it was funny that on the UK version of Amazon, Sherry is listed as the author and John just as the “illustrator”!

    • Julia says

      So I have a question about your book: After reading these comments I just went to amazon.de (I live in Germany) and preordered your book – Yay! Then searched for it on amazon.com and the title was different !?
      “Young House Love: 251 Ways to Show Your Home Some Love” (on amazon.de)
      “Young House Love: 251 Ways to Paint, Craft, Update, Organize, and Show Your Home Some Love” (on amazon.com)
      What’s up with that? Any idea?

    • YoungHouseLove says

      It appears that only the American one is updated (the longer title is the final one, as much as we fought for the shorter one, haha). I think they might also have John listed as the illustrator in some of the un-updated ones (we know that’s the case with the UK one) which is kind of hilarious! Here’s hoping they update that soon!

      xo,
      s

    • Anne says

      Nah, German amazon has both of you covered as the authors.

      Also, it is on amazon’s bestseller rank Nr. 1.085 for English books!
      It may not sound that impressive, but think about it! “Leaves of Grass” by Whitman is #1.577, and “The Rum Diary” (Hunter S. Thompson) is only #3.958!! And your book hasn’t even been published! Gotta have tons of German fans (Even more if there will ever be int. giveaways. ;P), and loadsa pre-orders on amazon.de!! Congrats, you guys!

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Wow- that’s awesome! You guys are the best. Seriously, the best! And last week’s giveaway was international! We definitely try to work them in as much as we can!

      xo,
      s

  17. Chelsea says

    The blue is absolutely perfect! Your kitchen is officially my favorite. I’m smiling at my monitor- magical happy power stools? That’s the real deal.

    Reply

  19. Lindsey says

    The stools look amazing!Now I wish I had grabbed the stools I saw like this at a yard sale last week – it is amazing what some hard work and a few coats of spray paint can do. Great job!

    Reply

  21. Laurne says

    Beautiful transformation… much more polished looking I think. Question: Did you consider leaving the middle of the seat unpainted? Did you have to remove it and paint it separate? Is that seat part also metal?… It looks like wood.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      It’s sort of a veneer piece in the middle that didn’t come out very easily but we loved the idea of it all getting the same tone so it would look more solid and less busy since there are four of them, ya know?

      xo,
      s

    • Kristen @ Popcorn on the Stove says

      I was wondering that, too (about if you guys though about leaving the seat unpainted). Do you think you might go back and use a stencil for texture on the seat part so it stands out a little bit (maybe a subtle pattern like a matte in the same color)?

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Always a possibility down the line! I think for now we don’t want them to be any busier (there’s a lot going on in the room) but you never know if we’ll change our minds someday!

      xo,
      s

    • Wilhelmina says

      I’m looking back on this post, because I plan to do something fairly similar! We’re going the chrome route though! Question, did you do anything to the round veener-y piece before painting it?
      It’s a weird texture, so I wasn’t sure if you sanded on top of it or not.
      I just hope ours come out as beautifully as yours!!

  23. Pamela @ Pink Hammers & Sippy Cups says

    Oooh you guys totally made the right choice going with the blue! I love it! And I must say I at least really, really love the little pops of yellow in the kitchen with the chairs! I think it’s just so fun and cheery without being too overboard! Any other colours then some pops of yellow might be a bit crazy though.

    Reply

  24. Sarah says

    Was totally hoping for a Guffman reference for this post (stool boom? anyone?)!

    LOVE the blue and that Clara associated the pretty stool with a pretty princess… she’s just too sweet!

    Reply

  25. Barb says

    I am now a believer. I must admit…I said to keep them gray. I was wrong. They are stunning!!!

    Please forgive me!!
    B.

    Reply

  27. Amy says

    I LOVE the stools and hope you don’t end up deciding to “white-ify” the shelves. The pops of color look great and give the kitchen more personality that it would have with all-white shelves.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yeah, I’m thinking of just playing around and seeing what I like! Those shelves are constantly changing anyway, so I’m sure we’ll go through a lot of little updates and switcheroos over time (depending on my mood, haha).

      xo,
      s

    • Carla says

      Agree! Every design show I’ve ever seen doesn’t have just one pop of colour. Having some blue on the shelves draws your eye into the kitchen. Otherwise it’ll just stop at the chairs (which are awesome, btw -so much better than the original), but I don’t think they are enough of a statement to be a focal point all on their own.

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I’m sure those shelves will just continue to change with my mood. More color some days and less color others! Thanks to things like the colorful painting, the stools, and a giant clam shell of fruit, the kitchen will never really be colorless!

      xo,
      s

    • Sarah says

      100% agree! That is actually what I was coming to comment on. I think to “white-ify” the rest of the accessories the stools will actually look out of place instead of perfectly tied in as they do now (maybe like they belong in another room & just got moved there), plus the other subtle pops of color throughout give the room dimension. I think SOME color is definitely a keeper.
      BUT the stools look ah-mazing! Great color choice and I think the new finish makes them look more expensive.

  29. bridget b. says

    i’m a sucker for the two-tone look, so i probably would have left the seats brown. but the stools look really nice, you picked a great color!

    i wonder if you guys have ever used a spray paint can spray grip (like this one: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-25ecodZ5yc1v/R-100140106/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=spray+paint+accessories&storeId=10051)

    i always have such bad luck at keeping an even, steady stream while spray-painting things but you guys really have me inspired to paint something. i wondered if this would help…

    Reply

    • Kasey M. says

      I used one on my wooden table and chair set. I don’t have finished photos on the blog yet (still looking for the perfect fabric for the seat cushions) but I have to say I wasn’t impressed. I had a hard time doing “thin” coats (maybe I wasn’t moving fast enough, maybe it was the actual spray pain…who knows). Also…the gun lost it’s ability to grip the can after oh…the third can? I was working on a table and four chairs we used a lot more than 3 cans of paint.

    • JP says

      I bought one after I saw it on someone’s blog. Maybe Katie Bower? Anyhow, I’ve used it a few times and I love it. My fingers don’t cramp anymore. No problems with thin coats.

      I’m addicted to spray painting after reading y’all’s blogs.

    • Reenie says

      I have one, it’s a lil different than that one…..best $5.00 I ever spent. I LOVE it =)

    • Donna says

      Bridget,

      I do use one of these and it is a great preventer of the spray painting hand cramp. Plus you don’t get your pointer finger all gunked up with paint. I love mine. However, I think it does release a bit more paint, which means it uses more paint per project. That being said, I no longer spray paint without one. Just my 2 cents.

    • Kasey M. says

      Alright it looks like I bought the wrong spray gadget (or made a mistake letting my significant other use it. I take my previous comment back, they’re totally worth the money, just don’t buy the cheap one like I did!

  34. Lauren@FilingJointly says

    I want to preface this comment by saying that I think the stools look great(like really great) and you should definitely not change them at all.

    But I had the weirdest dream a couple of nights ago that I was spray painting my walls because I was too lazy to regular paint them(dream Lauren is very lazy, she once wore a nightgown to work.) But the cool thing was that I had like a mental undo button. So like if I accidentally sprayed the curtains, I just thought “undo” and my last spray disappeared.

    I woke up and was really disappointed that I don’t have an undo function in real life. You saying you could always repaint the stools if you didn’t like them made me think of this.

    This comment probably made zero sense. But again, love the stools!

    Reply

    • heather says

      haha! Dream Lauren sounds awesome. I had a dream last night my legs were getting more and more numb and I could barely walk so I was trying to get to urgent care (because clearly, your legs getting progressively more numb rapidly to the point you can’t walk required urgent walk-in care…not an ER).

      I woke up with my 60lb dog laying over both of my legs, one more than the other…which explains why my left leg was more numb in the dream than my right….cause they were pretty numb in real life. Hah.

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, that’s so funny! I once had a dream I was hiking and these rocks kept rolling down a drop off and pelting me in the back. Woke up to Burger kicking me in the back repeatedly while having some sort of running-dream. Haha.

      xo,
      s

    • Kasey M. says

      I once dreamed that I was attacked by a shark and I was in the hospital where I discovered that I had no arm. It turns out that in real life I had fallen asleep on the couch and rolled into a position where I cut off circulation to my left arm.

    • Heidi P. says

      Ohmygosh! Literally laughing out loud! All hilarious! Thank you all for that! :)

      I love that Valspar color. Maybe I already showed you this, but I used that color on some pegboard for my jewelry. Makes a great statement in my somehow-all-gold-/-tan bedroom. And an in-progress-for-the-last-few-months project is dyeing my sheets a similar teal color to offset my gold comforter. Re-dyeing as we speak. “speak”.
      http://dhperezfamily.blogspot.com/2012/02/hanging-spree.html

      …still laughing

  35. Melissa Breau says

    I’m curious — what made you decide to pain the seats the same color and to do them all at once, at the same time you did the chairs? Did you know they’d be okay with the paint or was that a guess-and-hope?

    I would have worried they wouldn’t come out even and pulled them off, potentially opting for fabric instead.

    I’m glad they came out right though — Love the bright blue!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We had heard from a few other folks with similar stools with veneer seats and they said they took paint well so we just went for it. We figured if they didn’t work we could always pop them out afterwards and cover them in fabric if they weren’t doing it for us. I think ultimately we didn’t want our stools to be busy, so we were hoping all one color would work out!

      xo,
      s

  36. Nan says

    The chairs look great. This seems to be a very popular color. I just painted a wicker chair from IKEA the same exact color. I love the pop of color it gives our back porch. I still need one more can for the wrought iron table but after searching two big box stores… No luck.

    Reply

  38. Stephanie J says

    Ive been spray painting some mirrors from yard sales this week. My next project is a vintage Cisco step stool I got from my mother in laws basement. This post helps a lot with how I might get started. Will be checking out the deglosser.

    Reply

  39. Karla@{TheClassyWoman} says

    The color totally makes these stools awesome! I’m with Penni, I was sort of questioning the stool’s overall appeal but they are beautiful! I can’t think of a better color that not only compliments the kitchen but ties in with the other adjoining rooms. Great job!

    P.S. Clara makes me laugh. Petting the stools. Blue, pretty like a princess! lol Thx for sharing that bit also. :)

    Reply

  43. Meagan says

    I totally voted turquoise and I love the way they turned out. As for the dining room chairs…I think they need to be white slipcovers. With future dark floors and the dark tables I think they need a little white to contrast all the dark and tie in with the main part of the built ins. Just my 2 cents.

    Reply

    • Carol says

      I was thinking the same thing about the dark floor/dark table in the dining room. I love Meagan’s idea of white! Adding piping or some colorful decorative detail to white slipcovers could be awesome (although I guess that could make the washing/bleaching a little trickier!)

      LOVE the turquoise stools! I need to spray paint more things!

    • Nan says

      I agree that white dining chairs is the way to go . . . I have white slipcovered dining chairs and, though I don’t have any kiddos, I do have two cats who can make a mess from time to time. The great thing about white is that it can be bleached if necessary. The stools look fantastic!

  44. Megan says

    They look great!!! I had that paint color in mind for some frames in my house to hold my daughter’s art work and now I know what color to go get! Thanks!

    My daughter says the funniest things when I change things in my house. I recently painted our hallway a very similar color to your guest room (it was a dingy white before hand) and she said it was pretty then thanked me for it and it’s been a nightly routine for weeks now.

    I have similar stools in my classroom and have been wondering if I could paint them. Maybe now I’ll have the guts to ask my boss…

    Reply

  45. Susan says

    You guys are really amazing, I totally was thinking “why would you paint them? they look fine, it will be too much.” but I love it, it looks so… right. I can’t describe. It really inspires me to work on a few spray painting project we have been putting off. I guess I need to start my own ‘get on that already!’

    Reply

  46. em says

    Is it weird that I feel like I won? Like you took MY suggestion? I guess that’s testament to how personal your blog feels to us readers. Oh, and the stools look amazing.

    Reply

  47. Michelle says

    I love them!

    And love Clara’s critique! At Easter, my nephew (2 on May 13) told my 5 year old niece that she looked pretty in her dress … “like cookie!”

    Reply

  48. Crystal says

    my favorite make-over to date! Love, love, love the blue (although yellow would look great, too). They add such an awesome splash of color!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, we thought about leaving them but didn’t want it to look too busy (four chairs in a two-tone scheme might have been a little all over the place, ya know?).

      xo,
      s

  50. Betsy says

    Its pretty much a sign of old age when stool comes up in a conversation….but not here!!lol….. love the color and how it looks in the kitchen! Really like the rug too!

    Reply

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