a fan of aqua (pardon the pun).

Published on by Quandie

I shared this gorgeous aqua paint from Dixie Belle called The Gulf in Monday’s post.

I’ve always been a big fan of aqua and I thought this shade would be perfect for a vintage fan that my friend/co-worker Jodie gave me.

Much like with toolboxes, I usually don’t like to paint over an authentically aged metal patina … except when they are this not so fabulous shade of brown.

Jodie had already removed the electrical cord from the fan.  I always do that too when I’m working with a piece with old wiring that doesn’t look safe.  I don’t want anyone to be tempted to plug it in.  This fan is for looks only.

I was hoping to be able to temporarily remove the safety grill allowing me to easily paint the blades, but that proved to be impossible.  The nuts and bolts holding it in place probably hadn’t been moved in at least 50 to 60 years and they weren’t budging.  So instead, after wiping down all of the surfaces as well as I could, I pulled out a long, slender Staalmeester brush.

I was gifted these brushes by Loree from Homestead House Milk Paint/Fusion Mineral Paint.  I have to confess, they are so gorgeous that I’m afraid to even use them.  I don’t want to mess them up!  Is it wrong that I just want to display them like art in a pretty jar on my desk rather than actually paint with them?

I also have to confess that when I initially saw the long slender brush in the middle I thought to myself ‘this looks like an artist’s brush’ and I wondered if I’d ever find a use for it.

Sure enough, it came in handy almost immediately for painting the blades of this fan.

I was easily able to reach in between the wires of the guard with the brush to get to the blades, and the brush was slender enough that I didn’t have to work too hard to not get paint on the guard.

As you can see above, once the paint was dry I sanded everything including those ridges on the blades to produce some faux distressing.

To be honest, I’m still wondering if I should have just stopped there.  But I didn’t.  I also added a couple of Tim Holtz rub-on’s to the fan.

Should I have left it alone for a more authentic vintage vibe, or do you like it with more of a ‘altered art’ sort of look?

Once the rub-on’s were in place, I coated everything with some of that delicious new Fusion wax that is scented with essential oils.

How do you like this fan transformation?

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the paint for this project, and to Loree at Homestead House Milk Paint/Fusion Mineral Paint for the brushes and the wax.

You can find Dixie Belle paint here.

And you can find the Staalmeester brushes here.

33 thoughts on “a fan of aqua (pardon the pun).”

    1. Uh oh. I don’t have occasional sales anymore Nikkii 😦 They were very time consuming, plus required my workshop to be unavailable for actual painting for several weeks at a time. On another note, my hubby just mentioned you the other day and said we hadn’t seen you in a while. He thought the Cosmic Roses dresser would fit nicely into your decor 😉

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  4. I immediately thought the same thing when seeing the brushes. They are gorgeous and I wouldn’t want to wreck them! Haha. Love the way the fan turned out.

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    1. Well, the long skinny one was awesome to use, and it cleaned up beautifully. I took the photos of it after using it to paint the fan. So maybe I need to bite the bullet and paint with the others too.

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  7. I’m a fan of aqua too. It’s probably at the very top of the list. Although I like the lightest of the three you posted on Monday, I definitely think this is the perfect color for the fan. I think the Tim Holts transfers are cute, but I probably would have not put them on. Thanks for sharing a fun transformation.

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  10. I love how this turned out! And I am a fan of puns! Lol. I did not know Staalmeester had a small artist-style brush like that. I bet it holds more paint -and requires less dips in the jar- than the tedious, small, long-handled ones I have painted with🤔.

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    1. I didn’t know they made this size brush either. I tried to find it for sale on the Fusion website and it wasn’t there, so maybe this particular brush isn’t readily available. It was lovely to use though.

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  14. Love the color, love the brushes, don’t like the transfers. I really hate being able to see the edges of the transfers on the item.

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