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Painting Our Shed + Our Favorite Paint Sprayer Giveaway

August 9, 2016

Last summer, we moved a rather large shed from our property to my parents' next door. You can see how that went down in this post. It was an exciting and absolutely nerve-wrecking couple hours with a huge crane and we were left with a pile of rocks. That is to say, things looked way worse. As nice as that shed was, we have plans to turn that big slab of concrete and neighboring bed of rocks into something more playful, beautiful and functional.

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This is a recent photo of one of our side yards. Pretty sad, right? We have big plans, but if you need to take a few minutes to judge its current state--we understand. We'll talk about our plans for this whole area another day, but today, we wanted to share with you a quick makeover we did with the shed we bought last October to replace the monster shed we took out last summer (plus a giveaway at the end!).

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This little lean-to shed we bought from Lowe's for around $400 and had to build it ourselves. It takes up significantly less square footage but still provides the extra storage we needed for our lawn mower, saws and extra tools. Shortly after we got it built against the house, (Chris remembers vividly it being on Halloween) the weather turned cold and we pushed plans to rescue this side of the house until this year. And now that we're done with the deck, we're turning our attention back to this little shed that came pre-primed, but could definitely benefit from a paint job.

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First, we wanted to dress up the doors a little bit, so we added some extra wood pieces we had on hand to take the doors from two paneled, to six paneled. To choose a color for the shed, we found a swatch similar to our siding color (Silver Bonnet--it's not exact, but pretty close) and knew that anything on that card would coordinate.

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Instead of painting it the exact same color as the siding, we decided to go 2 shades darker; Portland Twilight by Valspar. It's a really rich, deep, warm gray. We surrounded the shed with cardboard and got painting! You've heard us praise our favorite paint sprayer before--the Wagner Flexio 570--but I can't say enough good things about it. I painted the whole shed in less than 20 minutes.

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It has a bunch of settings for large scale projects, or smaller detailed ones and you can choose which direction you want the paint to spray--vertically or horizontally. It also has a tube inside that is curved so you can paint even if the sprayer is facing up or down.

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After the dark gray paint was dry, I went back in and painted the doors Ultra White by Valspar, trimming the edges out with a brush. The result is a lot more crisp and a great jumping point for the rest of this side of our home to take shape.

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Besides tearing out the concrete pad in front of the shed (I really can't wait for that big job!), we want to do smaller things like

  • build a raised planter to the right of the shed
  • Install something to hide the trash and recycling that live to the left of the shed
  • disguise the sprinkler wires
  • refresh the side door
  • get a new exterior light for side door
  • add pavers and plants in front of shed after concrete is gone

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We've already started checking some of these things off the list, so we'll be back with another update on that soon! Before we sign off on this project, we reached out to Wagner to see if we could giveaway one of their Flexio 570 paint sprayers  and they were more than happy to!

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We've used this paint sprayer on all of our interior doors, our crib, kitchen cabinets, walls, paneling, and now our shed. It's so universal and one of our favorite tools we own. You can enter to win one through the rafflecopter widget below. We'll pick a winner Friday. Take luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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  1. My hubby bought this exact shed this spring! we've got a pretty small yard, so it's just right for our needs. We painted it dark green with black trim - fun to see how the exact same shed can turn out looking quite different!

  2. So timely as I'm currently shopping for a new shed for our lake house. It came with a super dingy old metal one that is in horrible shape and we also really need windows for light. I'm also really seeing a paint sprayer in my future....

  3. The miracle of paint :)
    We are getting ready to paint the exterior of our house. Think we need to get a paint sprayer!
    P.S. We totally got a couple new light bulbs after listening to your podcast on lighting haha

  4. Hey! Looking great! We have that same sprayer and actually bought it because I saw your post about how much you loved it. We have an entire house full of doors to paint and we thought it would work wonders in speeding that process along. The problem we ran into though was that no matter how we changed the settings it was still spraying a stippled affect on the doors. Any suggestions? There was like a texture to it, which no one wants on their interior white doors, or at least we don't. It also seems to have a lot of paint go into the air in little particles all over everything in our basement. Hmm... Thoughts? We covered up way more area around what we were painting than you did with your shed, and we still saw buts of tiny paint like 20 ft+ away from the paint area. Like a big paint fog mist. Any pointers would be amazing!!! I love your blog and your style so much!! Cheers!

    1. That doesn't sound right. Make sure your nozzle is really clean. We wipe ours every 5 minutes or so. I've never had that issue, but you're right, that's not something you want on your doors!

      1. This comment is helpful because I have upstairs doors that are in need of some paint and I have been wanting a paint sprayer for a while! thanks for the tip!

  5. we are moving into a new house where every wall is a different shade of blue!!! there is a lot of painting in my future....

  6. Excited to see what you guys do with that side of the house :) Also, I love the idea of this sprayer, not just for the ease of painting, but also for the minimal waste related to painting! All those paint trays and rollers that eventually become garbage saved from the landfill! Coincidentally, my husband & I were just talking about embarking on a whole-house trim-paint re-do (everything was beige walls and wood trim when we moved in) so this sprayer would be perfect right now!

  7. How was the actual build process for the shed? What tools were absolutely necessary? I've been thinking about one but with my limited experience actually building larger scale items it makes me a little hesitant to pull the trigger.
    But yours looks great! Maybe just the nudge I need to go for it :)

  8. Do you prefer the 570 over the 590? I feel like I remember you using the 590 for some projects in the past too?

    1. This is kind of crazy to admit, but we have the 570, 590 and one other large scale one. The 570 is the most economical, budget friendly one. It has 2 speed settings which I have found to be adequate for most of our projects. The 590 has a little more settings and comes with a detail sprayer which can be nice if you're spraying something like intricate wood work. We love both. The 570 is a little more straight forward.

  9. Ooooo I would love a paint sprayer. I've been looking into them for ages! Basically, everything in our house needs painting ?

  10. OMG I love this! As always you guys are amazing! As weird as this sounds, I can't wait to see how you guys disguise those wires! I have similar wires on my siding and I hate them but I don't know what to do with them!

  11. ... I wasn't sure where to comment because I couldn't find a post aboutthe recent podcast but I just wanted to say I totally agree with your thoughts on the Insta stories. I'm not a fan, I've unfollowed a few people, and I just love how casual snapchat feels and almost more private/less judged if that makes sense.

    I wish there was a way to unfollow certain peoples stories but still follow their regular posts. I can not not click on (or click through) all of the stories... if nothing less, to get rid of the colored circles around the photos.

    I'm liking your current approach but I do feel overwhelmed and stressed for people in your position who are feeling forced to take on every social media format the comes out. I never tire of seeing your home but I hate feeling so preoccupied and obligated to check all of these formats all day long..

  12. Have you considered spraying the inset panels on the doors a complimentary color? I love the addition of the wood detail but think it gets lost a bit with the all white.

  13. That is awesome - love the color too. I hesitate to paint sometimes just thinking of the pain to sit/stand and hand paint - and then hide the brush strokes as much as possible :-)

  14. I need this! So many things need painted around our home. Kitchen cabinets for one. Our exterior for another.
    I loved your basement reveal btw.

  15. This looks good - way better than I expected, honestly! You guys are amazing. Also, great pictures as always ;)

  16. Chris Loves Julia, Emily A Clark AND Young House Love all post about sheds in less than a 24 hour period...I feel like I'm being brainwashed into wanting, no NEEDING, a shed now! I promise I'm not complaining. I just never thought I'd hear myself say "I really want a shed" but I totally want one now...

    1. I almost pushed our shed post after seeing that! Haha. Mostly because ours looks (and is) incredibly dinky in comparison. Sorry about the shed overload.

  17. I have been so hesitant to swap out my brush and roller for a sprayer. I just finished painting our rental unit of our row home and have our unit and basement still to go. So perhaps it is time for a change, the ceilings nearly killed me. The two questions holding me back: How difficult is clean up, and do you end up using more paint?

    1. The shed took not even half a gallon and less than a quart of white--so maybe a little bit more, but not significantly more. Clean-up tacks on an extra 15 minutes.

      1. Wow! I'm thinking the sprayers available are more efficient these days. Probably worth looking at again. Thanks for the info! P.S. It looks nice, looking forward to seeing the landscaping soon!

  18. As always, it's crazy how much of a difference a fresh coat of paint can make! The shed looks great, and I can't wait to see what you do with the rest of the space. Also - I so need this paint sprayer - I'm getting claw hand from all the painting we've been doing in our new house! Haha

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