After completing a book manuscript, I launched into more painting, starting with several chippy-looking radiators like this one. I used a lead test kit before scraping all the loose, scaling paint, which uncovered an early layer of dusty pink and a child’s penciled-in daisy.
It took about 3 coats of paint to properly cover all after an initial, disastrous use of spray paint. Spray paint is not advisable for use indoors, even it if seems like a great idea for reaching spots that cannot be reached well by brush. It creates a ridiculous cloud of fine paint particles that will settle absolutely everywhere inside the room. Painting by brush is less hazardous, even if the brush becomes sacrificed for how the bristles become mashed for poking it down into the fins.
Final result:
And whoever that child was who penciled the flower was incredibly observant!
After completing this, I hurled myself into redoing the fireplace and bookshelves. Here is what it originally looked like. Note the guitar inside case on the floor:
I was able to remove at least a couple of the shelves, which were mostly painted firmly into place, and stick my head inside the case to see that the original, unpainted wood inside was a dark color–which happened to be exactly the look I was planning to give it! I thought about stripping all the paint off but that was going to be too much of a mess so I went ahead and painted it.
I then painted the mantle top to look like a light gray marble:
And the fireplace is painted a blended palette of darker and lighter hues mixed with some metallics that you cannot really see in this photo but it gives the effect of the late afternoon sun’s dappled light and shadows.
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