The Painting That Needed Repainting

OK, confession time.  We have been living in our new house (new to us, built in 1967) since September and there is not one thing hanging on my walls.  It's shameful, right?  Here's the issue, before we moved in we worked so hard "fixing" and painting the walls that it hurts my heart to put a nail up!  I mean, what if I change my mind, there will be a NAIL HOLE in my perfect wall!  Little fact about me...I have a hard time committing!  I mean picking out a paint color is the most stressful thing in the world for me.  The funny part is this time I knew what paint color I wanted, (thanks to my best friends new house) I had seen it on a large scale and already loved it.  You would think that would take the stress out of it for me...but it didn't.  Why you ask?  I came home ready to paint and Mark had gotten there a few hours before me and had already started painting.  I walked in and he already had the 1st coat on the den, I panicked.  I was all like this isn't right, this isn't the color, it looks to light!!!  Mark knows me...I mean really knows me.  So he says, "It's OK!  Let me get a 2nd coat in this room and if you don't like it we will go back and get something different."  He knew that if I gave it a day or two I would love it, change just isn't my strong point.  He was right, I did love it...so much that I have not been able to hang one single thing up on the wall.  :)

Which brings me to these canvas paintings I picked up at Goodwill.  I knew when I purchased them that I didn't like the color at all but I thought I could spray paint the whole thing white and it may look good.  They are very textured so even if I painted the entire thing you could still see the branches design in them.

Before

Last weekend I decided to pull them out and give it a try.  I decided I would paint them a light blue color (with free paint I scored from Home Depot!).  I thought the blue would look nice against the gray walls in "The Parlor" (which is really my office/craft room - Mark just insist we call it The Parlor).  :)

With 1 coat of blue

Originally I thought I would just paint them all blue and be done.  But as I was painting I kept thinking that the branches would look really nice white.  I kept just trying to dismiss the thought because I really wanted to hang something up that day!  But as soon as Mark walked through the door whats the first thing he said?  "Wow, that looks really good!  You should paint the branches white!"  That decided it, if my husband says out loud what I was thinking then its a done deal.  The branches needed to be white.  So I painted the branches white with a paint brush, didn't even worry about getting it on the blue at all.  

With white branches

All that was left was going back over the entire painting with a foam roller and painting over everything with blue one more time.  I thought that the foam roller would keep the paint from getting in the white branches but I was wrong.  I ended up having to go back with a small artist brush and touch up the white anyway.  

Finished Canvas

I'm really pleased with how they turned out!  Not bad for a $12!  The only thing I had to purchase was the actual canvas', I already had the (free) paint!  I will always look at Goodwill for any textured canvas paintings because now I know they can be painted over beautifully!  And finally, I have at least two things on my wall.  ;)  

What about you?  Have you ever purchased a thrift store/Goodwill canvas knowing you were going to paint over it?  Any DIY wall decoration ideas?  I would love to hear your ideas and see your pictures as well!  

Happy Painting!