Project: Black Shelf Finished!

Shelf: $35.00
Spray paint:
2 cans of primer, ?$3.00
5 cans of black, ?$3.00
Hardware: ?$10.00

Items bought to be used on other projects:
Scraper: ~$3.00
Sandpaper: ~$ 2.00

Total money spent (estimated, as I don’t really want to have the real figure sitting in front of me): $61.00
Total hours (estimate): 5-6

Started project: End of March
Ended project: End of May

Blow by blow:
I found the shelf in a used office furniture supply place. It was tall and I needed shelving, so I bought it. It was also gray and a bit wobbly. My brother said that getting repainting it and putting new hardware on it would make it all spiffy. He loves a project, too. We loaded it into his truck (in a driving rain which started 3 minutes after I bought the shelf) and brought it over to the apartment.

I took out all the nuts and bolts and bought a complete new set because some bolts were missing and the current ones were a bit the worse for wear.

Then scraping and sanding ensued. The sanding roughed up things quite nicely. I then sprayed the primer coat. That didn’t quite work out as intended because I ran out of primer; one can wasn’t enough. Also, when spray painting out of doors, the wind kept blowing the spray paint away. It didn’t help that I was in a wind tunnel area of my building. I couldn’t help feeling smug that while there were marks on the cement where our neighbor had spray painted without putting down a drop cloth, I had a drop cloth.

Out of paint, I put the project on hold for several weeks while I bought more primer and extra cans of black paint, moved, did a bunch of other stuff, got back on task.

My drop cloth expired in the move. It was plastic and I think I used it for a trash bag the first trash pickup before they dropped off our trash can. I continued on with the sheet I made for Matt when he ran the marathon in 2005. The marathon route went right past the Fortress of Solitude so I made a sheet that said, “Matt, who needs toenails?” and hung it up as a surprise after I dropped him off. After the initial favorable reaction, the sheet hung around balled up under our bed. What are you supposed to do with a sheet with paint on it? It turns out you use it as a drop cloth when your plastic drop cloth gets used as an improvised trash bag.

I was happy to be able to paint in the pantry of our new house, for I knew there would be no wind in that room with no windows. This initial satisfaction gave way to horror as I realized that after I had sprayed a bunch of black paint, there was a very thin coating of black particles on my new floor. Horrors! However, it did wipe off fairly easily. When I painted a bunch of shelves in one day though, the paint overwhelmed the drop cloth and some soaked through to the floor. So I have bits of black on the floor. I’m sure I will find something to clean that up, but in the meantime, I am pretending it is dirt.

The project moved out back to the patio where I managed to get a bit of black spray paint on the door frame, just to keep my marking record steady. Finally, I was through with the painting part, although I almost had to make another trip to the hardware store. The last can was running out and I still had a bit to go. “Screw painting this perfectly,” I thought, “I’m going to make this can last until the end. There is no way I am not finishing painting today.” And so the last bit, which is the front, has the least paint on it.

Once everything was dry Matt and I assembled the shelves with the shiny new nuts and bolts and then tightened everything down.

Voila! New black shelf.

I learned in the project never to use spray paint unless you want to spend a lot of money. I originally bought two cans, but after I ran out of primer, I bought one more. I think I ended up buying two more. So five cans at $3.00 a pop. I could have easily bought black normal paint. Also, my shelf incorporates both black MATTE paint and Black SHINY paint. It wasn't too clear which was which and in my three trips to the hardware store, I managed to buy both kinds. Sigh.

And I’m not a finisher. I start out all fastidious, but after a point I want things done. I did this project with 15 minutes here and there and it took forever. I’m going to do my darndest in future projects to schedule large blocks of time.

Oh, but wait until you see the new black shelf against the beautiful paint I’ve chosen for the pantry….