Faux Zinc Letters

If you've been hanging around Pinterest or the blogosphere, you've probably run across a few knock-offs of these fun Zinc Letters from Anthropologie.  (Like: here and here and here and here and here.)  This is understandable because, a) those letters are pretty cool and, b) they're also $18 a pop.  (Which is kind of pricey if you want to, oh, I don't know, maybe spell something with them?)

As much as I enjoyed those projects, I never really planned on making my own.  It just wasn't on my project radar, so to speak.   That is until one day when I spied these in Target's "One Spot" bins.  (Curse you, Target!  I cannot walk through your doors without getting sucked into the One Spot's vortex.)

The letters are three dimensional and made of cardboard.  They cost a dollar apiece.  The weirdest part is that there were exactly two left.  

And they happened to be my initials.  

If that is not a sign from the One Spot Gods I don't know what is.

I brought them home and they sat in the garage for awhile while I pondered their fate, but in the back of my mind I knew what I wanted to do.  You see, some friends of mine are having a little party.  It's a spray paint party.  And while I've already established that I am kind of a lousy spray painter, I also love a good party.  So I decided to start with a small project, something that would at least get my foot in the door.

How fortunate that I already had these cans of spray paint in my garage.  The one on the right is gray primer.  On the left  is a silver metallic.  

I poked some thumbtacks in the letters to keep them elevated while I spray painted.  (Yes, they left little holes.  No, I don't really care.)

Then I sprayed a thin, even coat of the primer.  Unfortunately there must have been some dry paint in the nozzle because the first spritz blasted my "E" with little flecks of paint.  I was able to sand most of them off but since part of the charm of zinc letters is their "imperfections," I wasn't too worried. 

After the primer I sprayed a few coats of silver....

And this was the end result.  (That spot on the left side of the E isn't as noticeable in person.)

I love them and can't wait to find them a permanent home.

Thanks, One Spot Gods!

Linking:

I Interrupt This Tour of the Living Room for a Tour of the Balcony

I'm bored of the living room.

So today I'm going to digress and take you on a little tour of our most recent remodeling project: the master balcony.

(I can do that.)

(Because it's my blog.)

(And apparently I'm drunk with power.)

Where was I?  Oh yes, the balcony.   Last spring my husband and I decided to paint the exterior of the house.  One day, as we took a walk around trying to figure out colors, etc., we found ourselves standing on the master balcony.  As the name implies, this is/was a small wooden balcony accessible from our master bedroom.  It had probably been more than a year since we'd ventured out there which is is a shame considering that it has a beautiful canyon view.  Unfortunately, the balcony itself was narrow with an ugly metal banister and even uglier plastic lawn furniture.

Uglier yet was the giant mushroom we found growing out of a rotten floor-board.  My husband joked that he could probably put his foot through said board and, after convincing him that was a bad idea, we decided to rethink the whole painting-the-house thing.  Instead we discussed expanding the balcony.  It was a project I had envisioned when we bought the house, not so much because I wanted a bigger balcony but because I wanted the shade it would provide below.  The fungus-among-us was just the kick in the pants we needed tackle that project so painting went on the back burner and construction began.  Here is what the back of the house looked like before the demo.

At the time I had no idea I'd be doing a blog post so the pictures won't tell the whole story but you can see that the balcony was narrow and unattractive.  (Unfortunately, I didn't think to photograph the giant 'shroom growing out of the floor boards ;)

So as much as I love a good remodel, I'm not such a fan of demolition.  For that reason, our contractor (who is also a family friend) kindly did the demo while the family was on vacation.  When we came home, the old balcony was gone and the new one was framed out...

The next step was cementing over the wood.

Then the guys ran electricity for the can lights and the fan:

In the pictures below, the cement has been stuccoed over, the lights & fan are in, the tongue & groove ceiling is complete, and stone has been added at the base of the columns.  

In the next picture you see the final product.  A Trex handrail has been added above (no mushrooms will grow in those babies!) and outdoor blinds hang below:

And then the fun began: furnishing!  For the balcony itself, we went with this set from Target.  I wanted something that was almost bed-like (since it's an extension of the master bedroom).  I looked at many other sets (from Pottery Barn to Walmart and everywhere in between) and couldn't be more thrilled with what we bought.    The poufs were from The Company Store.  They were on sale when we bought them and match the Target cushions perfectly.  (#winning!)  The green umbrella also matched and was repurposed from down below (where we no longer needed temporary shade).  

Did you note my pineapple sconce above?  Love that thing!  Got the idea while staying at this hotel in Ft. Lauderdale.  After spying a similar sconce in their entry, I Googled "pineapple sconce" from my ipad in the room and bought one just like that.  (Because I'm sassy that way.)  

Furnishing the covered patio was equally fun.  I fell in love with this set and managed to buy it on sale as well.  I'm pleased to say that we've been able to enjoy it all winter including Thanksgiving and Christmas!  I can't wait to see what the summer will hold.

Now about that painting...