What Color Are Your Curtain Rods?

A while ago I decided on a color palette for our Master Bedroom.
Now you may be thinking, "Geez, this woman must have a lot of free time and a total lack of concern for Libya to be consuming herself with such banalities!"  Rest assured, I AM concerned about Libya and whatever's going on there, but I happen to believe that a comfortable, aesthetically pleasing home makes a difference in my and my family's quality of life so yes, color palettes do take up a bit of space in my brain, as you can see barely make out below:

Anyway, we decided to use Valspar's Ice Rink Blue as the wall color, with bright white trim and gold and orangey-reddish-coral as accents. Instead of searching for pieces in stores that happened to be the perfect shade, we chose the obvious solution: to spray paint other stuff orangey-reddish-coral.

The first to get painted were our curtain rods! Here's an in-progress picture of the Master now - Including the lopsided pillows, a result of Mike's un-photogenic decision to use a Tempur Pedic pillow.

We chose to leave the curtain rods a little long on the ends because we liked the look. The rods are Umbra Loft from Target, one of the only inexpensive places I've been able to find rods with flat finials (which you can see in better detail by clicking on the photo above), which I prefer to the ornate rounded or square kind. I wanted to post a link to the rods on the Target website, but I'm afraid they may be discontinued as I can't find them on the Umbra website either. I found them in my local store and they still have them, so perhaps they're available at a Target near you as well! Here's a photo of the packaging for your reference:

And here's how we painted them:

1. We searched for spray paint in the right shade. Rust-O-Leum and Krylon are good choices for basic colors because they're readily available, but if you're looking for something a bit more unique and Bahama Blue isn't cutting it, we've found Montana spray paint can be a good choice. Because it was created for artists, they carry high quality paint in an excellent variety of colors. The Gold series, which we used, is spray acrylic, as opposed to spray enamel, so that's another plus. A graffiti supply shop in San Antonio called The Yard carries Montana spray paint so we're lucky to be able to get it locally. It's available online here, too, though the shipping is pricey so perhaps Googling where to find it locally is your best option. Check out the link to the online store, though, because the color selection really is impressive.

2. Once we had our perfect color :

3. We had to shake it for "3 min."

4. Then we had to remove the little black ring under the spray cap (inside knowledge Michael is privy to because he works with this paint regularly as he is himself an artist).

5. Then we set up the bracket so we could spray each side that would be showing evenly and at the same time.

6. By getting a little creative, we were able to set up the poles in a similar fashion. Michael just shoved the wire from an old campaign sign through the pole and allowed it to lean over to keep it from sliding all the way to the bottom. 

7. Then we painted.

We ended up using two coats on each piece. We allowed 24 hours of drying time between the coats and about 36 hours of drying time afterward. We wanted to be sure we didn't get any orange residue from partially dry paint on our white curtains.
We also took care when installing the rods because they did chip easily. We had to bring one pole back outside for another coat before we learned to handle them very gently. Since we don't plan to open and close these curtains, we don't have to worry about wear and tear over time.


Fortunately our experiment paid off! We're completely pleased with the finished product! We love the unexpected pop of color and we love that it only cost $7 for the spray paint!

Let me know if you end up painting your curtain rods! I'd love to see pictures.

Love,

Katherine