I have always wanted to paint a piano, so when I found an old worn one at the thrift store for $200, I bought it. It had been in a school since the early 1980s and was very worn. I could tell it had been pushed through many tight doors by the bent knobs and scratched sides. I decided to paint it a glossy navy blue.

Soon after I bought the piano, I found the bench at a different thrift store. I knew that once painted it would look like it always belonged with the piano.

Later I found this magazine rack for $3 at the thrift store and I spray painted it a glossy lime green. It works perfectly as a music rack.

I had a lot of fun creating this gallery wall above the piano using photos from our recent trip to Northern California.

Here is how I did it:

I started off by unscrewing the pieces of the piano. It was easy to see how the keys came out after taking the cover off and they were all numbered which made keeping them in order easy. After I pulled out the keys, I laid them out on the table and cleaned them up.

This piano had been in a school for many years and had a lot of garbage under the keys. After removing the garbage we carefully used an air compressor to blow out the dust in all the areas of the piano.

We taped up everything we didn't want painted and filled in all of the big gashes and scratches.

I tried 3 different colors out before deciding on the navy blue. Later I used the light blue to spray a frame for the gallery wall and the green to spray the magazine rack featured.

We sprayed it inside since there is no way just the 2 of us could carry that thing outside. We made sure to seal off the room we used, cover everything, and open windows. The spray paint still made lots of dust for me to clean in other rooms, but could have been worse. All of the parts that could be removed from the piano were taken outside and sprayed.

We used 2 cans of Rustoleum spray primer and sprayed one coat. It dried quickly and we were able to spray the first coat of paint after an hour.

We made the huge mistake of using Valspar spay paint from Lowes for the first coat. We followed the instructions and shook the can for 15 minutes, but the paint was very inconsistent coming out light blue in some places and then dark blue in others. I went online and found that many people have complained about this issue with the Valspar spray paint line. Lowes refunded our money and we bought Rustoleum Navy Blue gloss spray paint. We used 6 cans of spray paint and applied 2 coats.

I also sprayed the bench and covered the top with new fabric.

I got the cute knobs at Hobby Lobby.

Total cost for the piano:
$200 piano
$40 primer and spray paint
$5 new knobs

I used these Command picture hanging strips to hang all of the pictures on my wall. I didn't have to put any holes in the wall and they made the job 10X faster and easier. I will never use a nail or screw to hang a picture again (This is my own opinion and I was not paid to endorse Command Strips).

The gallery wall is made up of frames I already had, a few frames from the dollar store and thrift store, and a plate holder featuring photo books.

I'm linking up to these parties:
Tuesday
Elizabeth and Co.
One Fine Wire
Wednesday
Handy Man, Crafty Woman

Adorned from Above 
Ivy and Elephants 
Thursday
Catch a Glimpse Thursday
Transformation Thursday (The Shabby Creek Cottage)
Sweet Haute

Friday
The Shabby Nest
At The Picket Fence
My Romantic Home
The Pin Junkie
Jennifer Rizzo
WhipperBerry

Halloween Mantel and Decorations

I didn't use to decorate very much for Halloween, but it has become my 5 year old son's favorite holiday and he has been begging me all year to make Halloween decorations. We had a lot of fun shopping and decorating together, making Halloween one of my new favorite holidays.

The rat and black candlesticks on the mantel are from the dollar store and I made the banner with fabric from Joann's Fabric. My son has been learning patterns in Kindergarten, so I had him lay out the pattern for the banner and used it as a teaching tool.

These are the candlesticks I bought from the dollar store; I just spray painted them black.

I found a tutorial for a felt bat garland on Pinterest and had my daughter make it. I have been teaching her how to sew, so this was a great project for her.

I sewed easy envelope pillow cases and slipped them over my existing pillows.

I used the rest of my fabric to make a table runner and banner for the dining room.

I found these frames at the thrift store and the candlestick holder and plate at the dollar store.

 I spray painted them black and used them in my entryway.

The cost of all the supplies and fabric was under $40 (the fabric was most of the cost), but the fun I had with my kids was priceless. We love Halloween!!!

Painted Fireplace Mantel, Built-In Bookcases, and Fireplace

Back when I painted my kitchen cabinets, I also painted these built-in bookcases and mantel. I used the same colors that I used for the kitchen cabinets here: Kitchen Remodel - Painting Cabinets

I used a can of Rust-Oleum High Heat spray paint for the fireplace.

Spray Painting and Moving a Light Fixture

The light in my kitchen dining area was right in the middle of the ceiling, but I like my table offset so that I can have a walkway to the family room area. The light fixture was also a gold tone that I didn't care for. The previous owners had left a bunch of different paint in our basement and I found a great metallic dark brown that was perfect. My wonderful husband took the light fixture down, painted it and put it back up using a swag kit that we bought at Lowes for $12. I wasn't even home when my husband painted it so my 5 year old took pictures for me.

I bought this swag kit at Lowes in the lighting department for $12. It came with a 12 ft. chain, wire, and hooks. This whole project cost only $12 and now I have the light fixture where I want it.

Transforming a Girl Bike into a Boy Bike

I had this old bike from my daughter that I decided to use for my youngest son instead of spending money on a new bike. I took him to the store and let him choose the spray paint color and then I let him choose some fabric from my scrap box.

My DH took apart the bike and spray painted it for me.

I cut out the fabric and used some spray adhesive to stick it right on top of the girlie prints.

This took about 1 hour to take apart, paint, cut out the fabric and glue. What took the most time was prepping the bike by taping and covering up the parts we didn't want painted.

Since I already had the fabric and spray adhesive, the total cost was 5 dollars for the spray paint. My son enjoyed making all of the color and fabric decisions to customize his bike and he really enjoyed helping dad take apart the bike and put it back together (we probably could have done it faster without his help, but that was part of the fun).

Spray Painted Ceiling Fan and Zucchini Spice Cake

First of all let me start off by apologizing for not posting "FREE Friday Deals" last Friday. Today is my Grandmother's 100th birthday and I got completely caught up in making a movie of her life. When I get involved in something I forget everything else, even what day it is. I am back now and ready for some new projects and today's Penny Pinching Party!

Here are some things I have done this week:

Do you remember this fan that I spray painted last year?

    

Confession: a few months after spray painting it, we broke off one of the lights when moving a couch. We tried to glue it on with several different glues that claimed they could do the job, but sadly the light could not be fixed, so it stayed on the ceiling broken until this week. We took a fan from our basement family room (it won't be missed there since it is a basement and stays cool without a fan) and I painted it white. I forgot to take a picture before we took it down, but I'm sure you have seen a gold and white fan before.

I found an old can of heat resistant spray paint that I had used 12 years ago on an avocado green range hood. It was the only white spray paint I had in the garage and now my fan is heat resistant! No sanding or priming. I just covered up the motor and started spraying. I find that I don't need to rough up the surface and use primer first on things that don't get touched by my kids. Since the fan is on the ceiling, I think it will be safe.

I can't decide if I like white or dark brown better. The white is cheerful, but the dark brown is rich. What do you think?

I must have been on a roll this week because I also made cake! It has been a while since I have wanted to turn on the oven, but Fall has made me feel more like baking and heating up my house with warm oven treats. I found a recipe for Zucchini Spice Cake with Browned Butter Frosting at Utah Deal Diva.

It was soooooo good! It was also a good way for me to use up some zucchini that got way too big in my garden. The only thing I did different than the Utah Deal Diva was whole wheat flour instead of white, a little less sugar and no nuts (I love nuts, but my kids hate them in cake). Because of the spices, my cake turned out the same color even with the whole wheat and my kids couldn't tell.