I am in the middle of doing up our house and that means sticking to a tight budget. The room I am currently working on is my studio, or home office if you prefer. I have taken it from a boring white to a lovely dark teal blue called Antibes. My aim is to do as much of the house as possible with reusing the things we already have, upcycling them, creating colour scheme according to items we own or selling things off to purchase second-hand when needed.
It is pretty much the story of how we have done the house so far, so let’s stick with it!
Magnet board upcycle
I bought the magnet board from Ikea in Ashton-under-Lyne many moons ago and it has become a very useful storage space for my gubbins in my studio. Since working from home more often, it has increased in value by keeping important expenses out of the reach of my cheeky cat crew. After decorating, I just really didn’t want the dowdy grey board back on the wall.
Rather than getting rid of it and going through the pain of finding something of both practical and aesthetic balance, I decided to do a quick upcycle with a tin of spray paint and it did just the trick!
Preparation and supplies
The first thing I needed to do was to make sure the surface of the board was clean. You know how it goes with storage things, they get a little bit cobwebby and dusty. Ahem, at least mine do and I am honest about it. So yes, a thorough clean is a good start. If the surface is very mucky or damaged, I would advise giving it a rub down with some fine grade sandpaper (say 200 should do)
Then take it outside to a flat surface where you have plenty of ventilation. This needs a wind free dry day to be a success as you will be spraying iy a few times.
The paint I chose was the Wilkos Royal Blue Gloss Spray Paint, which is £5. I chose it as it was as close to the wall colour as I could get as I couldn’t get a contrasting colour which would go with the scheme of the room. To be honest, I am not that fussy, but I did want something which blended into the background rather than standing out and looking ugly.
Light and easy coats
The best way to spray paint anything is to do it in light coats over and over. This is to ensure that you get full coverage without any drips or pooling of the colour which causes patches. Hold the can about 15cm away from the board and spray in a sweeping motion until you have lightly covered the whole item. Leave for 15 minutes until it is touch dry and then you can put on a second coat to repeat the process.
As you can see from the picture, the colour is not blocky yet. This is fine as you will be repeating the motion until it is how you want it to look. I found that two proper coats and a top-up coat was plenty to get the look I was going for.
Repeat and dry
Repeat the routine until you get a solid colour on your board (or whatever you are doing for your upcycle) then leave for a final 12 hours before installing or using. This is to make sure that the paint is dry and won’t come off when you handle it.
As you can see from my picture, the colour is solid and fills even the edges of the holes in the magnet board. If you any weird spaces like that, remember to spray at different angles on each turn to make sure they all get an even cover.
Ready to put up
After it has had time to dry over night, you’re ready to put it back up again. I really like how my magnet board now blends into the background and I can start pairing down the things I store on it so that it keeps that slick look.
For a total cost of £5 and around 1 hours work, I gave my magnet board a simple and quick upcycle to bring a new lease of life to something which might otherwise have been moved on. It really is amazing how many things in your home can be spruced up with a bit of paint or TLC to become a favourite again.
I am a huge fan of not buying new and with simple upcyle methods like this, you can make something old look brand new again!