Why can't I paint it?... Well, I'm gonna.

He told me it couldn't be done.  Nay, it shouldn't be done. "It's just not done, dear," my husband said to me.  "They come in that color for a reason." Huh.  I replied, "Maybe, dear husband, the reason they only come in that color is because men designed them and have no eye for art."  He smirked at me.  I almost slugged him.

I am talking about fans.  Everyday, ordinary, cool-the-room-down-cause-we-don't-have-a-ceiling-fan fans.  Why do they come in the colors they come in?  They're white, grey, black, or some mixture of all three.  And they make rooms look un-pretty.  For example, take our tower fan for our bedroom: it is utterly necessary to us... it has a remote control.  I fell in love with it instantly.  But it is not pretty:

And it needs to be on something, so it can spread cool air through the room... so it takes up this corner of our dresser, which is one piece of our furniture that I actually like.  And it's just awful.  Hate it.

I thought for a while about building a narrow bookcase for it to sit on and even sketched out a plan for one.  But then, on an eventful trip to Michael's craft store, I found this:

With a 50% off coupon, it was just over $10.  Jackpot.  The base of the fan is a bit big to fit on it, but I hated it way less than I hated it on the dresser.  Great... end of story, right?  Oh, so wrong.

I still wasn't happy.  I stared at that fan on that pedestal for days.  My house fell into disrepair, the children and husband forgot what I looked like, and I just stared.  And it finally hit me:  It's the black color of the fan that I really hate.  It's not conducive to any sort of decorating theme... it had to be dealt with.  Enter the answer to my prayers:

The Krylon company is stocked full of geniuses.  Yup.

I put the hubby to work one Saturday morning and had him pull apart the fan housing and spray paint the whole thing.  The Krylon for plastic spray paint was amazing.  One coat would have done it, no priming necessary... I like to keep the husband busy though, so I insisted on two coats.  Here he is, hard at work:

If you listen closely to your computer, I'm certain you'll hear my husband Dave grumbling under his breath about being forced into servitude on his day off.  You may also hear me telling him to suck it up.

After two coats of spray paint (which dried in record time) Dave put it back together and peeled off the painter's tape.

It looks like it came from the factory in that color.  Why don't they make them in colors? It seems like it wouldn't be that difficult... I'm firing off a letter to a CEO first thing in the morning.  I'm sure they'll take me as serious as any other crackpot.

To finish my masterpiece off, I wanted to paint a shape on the side.  I found a good stencil at Michael's and went to work:

The husband took that picture.  I don't know why, but his pictures always turn out just a bit fuzzy.  Maybe his animal magnetism affects the camera's performance.  Anyhoo, I used a "Golden Brown" acrylic paint and worked on both sides.  The finished product is a huge improvement over where I started.  Here it is:

The colors are a bit wonky in the picture... just imagine the best shades of brown and 'river rock' (that was the name of the spray paint color.  River rock.  As opposed to mountain rock, I suppose.) that look super-special-awesome together.  Love it.  The fan is still a bit too big for the pedestal, but the paint job turned out so well, I don't even care.

Alright then... I've paved the way for you.  Paint your fans!

... and do this Thrifty Crafty Girl a solid and comment!! Or follow me! I'll follow you back!