Mid-century is of course the must-have furniture era these days. Ercol or G-plan for the everyday but quality items, and maybe an Eames or Jacobsen chair as a statement piece. I love Ercol chairs and managed to pick up 3 for £10 in a sale room in the Borders a few years ago. I had previously held them in such esteem that painting them was out of the question, even though they were not in great condition with a lot of water stains. I then decided life was too short to hold any chair in great esteem, and was inspired by a friend to try some spray painting.

The pictures in this post are taken with my iphone; spray paint and expensive DSLRs don’t make merry bedfellows. Plus i am experimenting with different picture styles for the blog as it has recently proved tricky to photograph every project i undertake.

I started with some primer, a lovely grey shade that i quite fancied! Having sprayed the whole chair in about 30 seconds, i instantly decided i was going to be a big fan of spray painting. It was dry in 30 mins, so i got straight to work applying the red.

Normally its a whole day job to paint furniture, waiting for each layer to dry, and removing any big globs of paint before doing the next layer. When the piece is not going to be distressed, it helps if the finish is really pristine and super smooth. Spray painting seems just the ticket for getting this kind of finish. I got the paints from eBay, and chose a satin finish. Its quite fashionable now to have glossy paints in bold colours but i haven’t quite recovered from my youth whereby lots of things in our house were painted white gloss; not very attractive (but quite functional i suppose!)

The red layer went on in about 5 minutes, and again was touch dry in about 10. True to form, it only occurred to me afterwards to check the surrounding area for rogue paint dispersal. I was working just outside the flat and there does now appear to be a red tinge to the side of the house and the gravel but no matter! Perhaps a better set-up would be advisable, with covers all around the working area, as these modern spray paints are designed to emerge as a very fine mist hence it does kind of go everywhere.

The finished article has a lovely finish, so smooth and uniform! Sadly i think we sat on them a bit prematurely and a lot of fluff seemed to gather on the seats after a few days, as well as a slight peeling noise when disengaging one’s derriere. I subsequently re-sprayed the chairs and applied a wax layer to the seat in order to make them more durable.

I’m really pleased with the results, and am glad to have taken the plunge into bright colours, my usual style being mid-tone greys, greens etc. Many people ask me how i have the time to do so may projects (and in response always point out the lack of little people in our house), but this project made me think of all those mums out there longing to do creative projects but lacking the time and energy required to see it through. If so, spray painting is for YOU!

I would say however that the one disadvantage of spray painting is the limited color range. If it’s a basic bright colour you need, eg hot pink, scarlet, you can easily find these but having worked with F&B paints mainly, and appreciated the fine attention to tonal range within these paints, i think there may be limited opportunity for more spray painting for me.

Having really embraced the red theme in the kitchen, i am now feeling inspired to search out more red highlights and delights. This evening i was checking out this website of vintage kitchenalia; probably a dangerous endeavour as i have now gathered a whole host of new collection aspirations. I was interested to read how popular brightly coloured vintage pyrex and melanine are becoming, as well as ‘Skyline’ utensils, of which i already have quite a few. I can feel a red vintage kitchenalia fetish coming on….