When you can't redecorate -- face lift!

Husband had already lived in his house for a year when we met. So it was pretty much decorated. or at least filled with things he needed. Two things he had was a brass lamp that's probably 30 years old and a dresser with brass knobs.

Seriously ... the brass was bad. I didn't like it. at all.

but when your decorating budget is ZERO you just live with things you might not love because they work.

I've been thinking about replacement lamps and silver dresser knobs for years, but haven't done anything about it.

THEN I remembered this:

There was a time in college when I had a brass butter knife but I needed it to be silver. real bad. so I went to Fred's and bought some silver spray paint. Over seven years later, it's still in my craft box, because really ... you never know when you're going to need silver spray paint. And Wednesday, I DID!

I sprayed the lamp first because all it required was removing the lamp shade. notice I didn't take out the bulb. That was part laziness and part not wanting to get paint down in the inner workings of the lamp. (too bad I didn't get a before shot of the lamp. Just imagine a shiny brass before)

And after. I like it.

This is the dresser before. Unfortunately I didn't remember to take a picture until the knobs were already off. oh well. I didn't want to put them back on ... so again ... imagine.

the knobs, prepaint.

the knobs, postpaint.

And the dresser after. Notice how we have a VHS/DVD player AND a cable box but no television. yea. There is no plans for ever replacing the television in our bedroom. We should find other storage for the player and box. Again, I like it.
I decided when I started my project that I wouldn't tell Husband and see how long it took him to realize I'd changed something. BUT because of my excitement, I spilled the beans that I did a household face lift project that I'd been wanting to do for years. It only took him a couple of hours to discover the dresser and shortly after the lamp. I fail at surprises and keeping secrets from Husband.