For Christmas I asked for a funky bottle opener for my new kitchen (I know, I know, I owe you a kitchen update, but baseboards are far more exhausting than I'd imagined) thinking I would get something like this.
Instead, my thoughtful and well intentioned mother bought me this.
Now this was very sweet of her, and I really do appreciate her effort, but this was not at all what I had in mind. After a year long tirade to rid my house of brown, I am very sensitive to the overuse of brown all together right now. And don't even get me started on red. But, at least I had a base to start with, also, Mom doesn't read the blog. So this, I decided, I could work with.
First, I removed the hardware from the board and took the gallon of orange paint that has since become my signature kitchen orange (you'll see soon enough, I may have gotten out of hand with the orange as usual) and gave it 5 coats of paint. Brown, as I've learned, is difficult to cover.
I spent some time online looking at mounted bottle openers that I liked. Most of them on Etsy included either a monogram or a state silhouette. My first instinct was try to try to incorporate a CA and a WI shape into the design, but the more I tried the less I liked it. So, I gave up and threw this together.
Having spent far more time on Pinterest than I should probably admit, I read that a good way to get "perfect" lettering is just to trace an image onto a painted surface. Why I never thought of this, I have no idea, but it was as easy as it sounds. All I had to do was trace image with a heavy hand and ballpoint pen, then try to copy that with a pencil... then try to copy that with a tiny paint brush. No sweat right?
The result was a perhaps somewhat abstract, but recognizable take on the shape of Wisconsin.
I happened to have a can of "Stainless Steel" spray paint kicking around which may or may not have been left over from spray painting the bumper of my car. I used that to give the hardware a finish that matches the rest of the kitchen a little better (read: make it not brown) and put the whole thing back together.
I cussed a blue streak while trying to mount it to my plaster walls, leaving gaping holes I'll have to fill someday and breaking 2 drill bits. But finally, I pulled out a beer for the moment of truth...
Comments