LARGE SHED PAINT TRANSFORMATION
The Magic Of Paint
This shed has driven me crazy for the past 11 years we have lived here. We have 2 large sheds like this at the beginning of our property. It's the first thing you see when driving in our driveway and they always seemed so cold and uninviting. I've had the idea to spray them a charcoal color to help them match the aesthetic of our house and helping them blend in and not stick out...
We bought a nice paint sprayer, I finally convinced Ryan, and that could only mean one thing, the shed was getting painted, YAY!!!
I told Ryan I haven't been this excited for a project like this in so long, I've been waiting for this for years and years...
Sharing below everything we used and the process on painting this big guy!
First, always a before and after
Before, it was not terrible it just was not the idea I wanted. Like I said it is the first thing you see driving up and it stuck out like a sore thumb. I didn't want a shed to take away from other parts of the property. So, my vision was to blend it as much as possible. Also, the paint on the shed was aging and showing through to the original metal so we did need to paint it regardless to maintain it. Might as well paint it something I love!!
Voila!! Simply with just paint the difference it makes is incredible. Goodness I love the magic of paint!!
So the first step was to pressure wash the whole thing. To get a clean base and get any gunk off of the steel.
The pressure washer we used is a super old one that we have. This one is a great one too if you are in the market for a pressure washer.
Once pressure washing was completed, we set up our new paint sprayer. We had one very similar to this that we used to spray our whole interior of our last house, our whole cabin inside and this whole house! They are worth their weight in gold I promise you!! This time around we splurged on one of the higher end paint sprayers knowing we have a lot of projects coming up and it will be worth it, but if you wanted to invest in a less expensive one we got one like this last time and it worked great!
The best advice you need to know about paint sprayers is that they need to be cleaned very well. If you don't they won't last long. So be sure to clean extremely well.
We also bought an extension wand which is a life saver for tall peaks!
Let's talk paint
The paint we bought was water based exterior paint from Menards. We were told years ago that if the steel has been previously painted you don't need a special paint. I've used this method on 2 camper that sat outside for 2 year, and a cabin shed that's been done for 5 years now and have held up great.. We used a total of 10 gallons of paint for this project.
The color we used is one of my all time favorite colors - It's called Toasted Poppyseed By Kilz brand in flat finish. I always love the Pittsburgh Paramount Brand. It is a true charcoal color which I love that it doesn't give off any blue tones at all...
We did end up adding about 1/2 cups water to every gallon to thin it out just a tad.
This is the back of the shed, thank goodness Ryan was brave and was willing to tackle the peaks. They are tall!
We are replacing the 2 windows in this shed as well at the door. Ryan already put a new one in. We covered the glass of the window and sprayed right over it. Note,I like to spray over everything so even the outlets got a fresh coat of paint lol.
I have lighting coming in the mail too that I am so excited to get hung up. It'll make it feel complete!
After 10 gallons of paint and a few hours later, shed #1 is painted!! Oh what a difference. Doesn't it make you just want to paint everything? ;)
I still get giddy every time I look outside and see this! Now onto shed #2 and #3.
Once all of the sheds are painted and done I will do a full blog post on the ins and outs of each one!
