Q: I live in a rented apartment with the worlds ugliest white and brass fans—super bright and shiny with all sorts of gaudy filigree details. I'd like to paint them (at least the brass part), but I'm not sure how to approach this project. I'm in my first trimester of pregnancy, so I'm trying my hardest to stay away from nasty chemicals and VOCs...
...I live in a historic neighborhood that features a lot of wonderful cast iron porches—I always thought the brass parts of these fans would look much classier in a matte black or dark brown to match the rest of the area. Paint? Mod podge and dark tissue paper?
I'm not really concerned about this being reversible. I highly doubt the landlord would notice or mind any improvement. These things must have been on clearance in the first place.
Any ideas?
Asked by Jo
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I have been trying to figure out the same thing! I'll keep looking, but looking forward to seeing any suggestions that come up too.
I recently redid our fans with great success. I took off the blades and painted all the metal with metallic spray paint, covering internal bits with tape. Then I painted the blades - blue with white clouds - with acrylics.
There are low VOC spray paints designed exactly for this purpose... take a look at your local hardware store and you should be able to track them down. Make sure you scuff up the surface a bit with a high-grit sandpaper to insure proper adhesion.
You can't - I repeat CAN'T - apply paper (yes even tissue paper) to the hardware on the blades... It will ruin the balance. The second you turn it on, it will spin unevenly and potentially break itself, or collide with an adjacent ceiling.
The only thing I can think of is spray paint. And even if it's low VOC I would recommend finding someone else to paint it for you.
Before you start scuffing and spray painting that ceiling fan, make sure your landlord doesn't mind. I would be furious if a renter ruined the finish on a brass fixture. You may think it's ugly, but chances are your landlord chose it and likes it.
Just replace it. I live in a rented NYC apartment and bring my own chandelier when I move in. Sometimes I will store the existing light fixture and replace it when I eventually move. But I also just buy a new fixture when I leave - it's under $100 for someone renter-appropriate and the landlord gets a new fixture for when it needs to be rented again. Never had a complaint.