Spray Painted Sea Urchin

I love spray painting - it's a quick and easy way to update almost anything.   My fiancé and I took a trip to Target one weekend where I found this gem:

He is a sea urchin from the Nate Berkus/Target collaboration.  Isn't he cute?  I temporarily repurposed him as a ring holder, but that was short lived when my fiancé saw my engagement ring sitting on a Target shelf.  But, we still took him home...I had big plans. 

I proudly displayed him on a shelf until I had the tools I needed - we don't have a lot of gold in our apartment, but we do have a lot of silver...so the quick fix was obvious: spray paint! 

I packed him up and took him to "my studio."  Unfortunately living in NYC does not offer us the luxury of a backyard, or a private garage where I can easily spray paint to my heart's delight and let the items sit to dry for 24...48...72 hours.  Instead, I use a large cardboard box.  Don't judge - girl's gotta do.  Sometimes my studio gets mistaken as garbage.  At which point I need to build a new one...which only takes as long as our next delivery, when I can repurpose another large cardboard box.  Even just this morning my fiancé said he wasn't going to take the empty box by our door to the garbage room for fear of "throwing out" my studio.  Sweet man.  

Does this look like trash to you?  Me either.

While you still need to have a lot of ventilation and an open space, using a cardboard box does contain a lot the excess spray paint...it's the best option I have found.  And, judging from the amount of spray painted items in our apartment - it is working!

This is my favorite metallic spray paint.  Rustoleum really is king.  He is so good.  But no matter how good a brand is, the painter has to be good too - this is where you come in.  Make sure to apply spray paint in very light coats.  You do not want drips...ever.  Take my word for it.  Also be sure not to hold your can too close to your object.  You want to get an even spray which is more likely when you are not right up against your project.  Stand back and admire! 

To begin, I transported the sea urchin to my studio:

He made the trip with some dark wood frames in need of a face lift...more on that later.  

I separated them as I sprayed.  Here is a picture of the frames and spray paint and my studio. 

Here is an after shot of the sea urchin and a frame:

Here is a before and after from instagram:

He looks a little blue in the picture above, here is a more accurate close up shot:

What do you think?  Do you like gold or silver better?  Let me know if you try to spray paint something in your home!

xx,

The Future Mrs. Wolf