Metal Locker Makeover

I recently scored a set of metal lockers from the break room of a store that went out of business. I’d planned to use them in my craft room, but then my granddaughter spotted them and thought they were the greatest thing since pockets on a t-shirt.

Every day Blaire came over to play, she headed straight for the lockers to play hide-and-seek with her stuffed animals, so I decided the lockers belong in the playroom I am working on. You can see from the playroom gallery wall that the lockers needed a little makeover before they would fit in…

I got the playroom color inspiration from my sweet and talented friend, Katie, from justaddsunshineinc.com. She recently shared her favorite color palette.

Don’t the colors shout “I belong in a playroom!” ???

I bought each of the colors listed above in sample-size jars from Home Depot, then I mixed in BB Frösch Chalk Paint Powder to make my own chalk paint. I could never have afforded to tackle this project with pre-mixed chalk paint! Besides the affordability and ability to choose the exact colors I want, I like that I can add a little extra powder to aid in bonding for surfaces like metal.

Using a brush, I painted the doors with the different colors in no particular pattern. The yellow and dark blue required three coats, but the other colors just needed two coats.

Any time I paint on a less pours surface like metal, I give my paint a little extra bonding time before I seal it. Even though chalk paint dries very quickly, it can actually take a day or so to cure.

You can tell from the picture that, even though I used a brush for the doors, the finish is nice and smooth–chalk that up to the self-leveling properties of a good-quality chalk paint (see what I did there?)

I let my painted doors sit over night before I sealed them with BB Frösch Premium Wax. This stuff seriously goes on like butter! I sealed the doors with wax before painting the frame of the lockers. This way, if I accidentally got any paint from the frame on the doors, I knew I could easily wipe it off without removing the door paint.

I masked off the doors so I could spray the frame. I love how quick and easy it is to use chalk paint in a sprayer. My favorite sprayer is the Homeright Finishmax, and I especially love the Homeright spray shelter. Learn details about using chalk paint in a sprayer here.

If I hadn’t wanted all the doors different colors, I could have just sprayed the whole thing in about 20 minutes. I’m still not sure if it would have been easier to spray the frame then paint the doors instead of painting the doors first. Either way, I would have had to mask off.

I still need to put the hardware back on, but I’m pretty dang pleased with how these babies turned out, and I can’t wait to get the rest of the playroom done!

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