Most of the houses on our street started out with the same gross exterior lights: dull white lantern-style sconces with a flat finish — like maybe they had been primed, for some weird reason.
The dull white lights don’t do justice to anyone’s home, regardless of the colour of their siding, so I originally decided to paint mine four years ago.
Longtime readers may recall when I taped off the glass sections, taped garbage bags over the surrounding siding and used a can of black spray paint on our yucky white porch lights (as well as the lights over our back deck).
The spray paint worked pretty well, except that the wind kept blowing my garbage bags around and I ended up getting black overspray on our beige siding. Oops. I was able to scrub off some of it, but there are still black-specled areas there — almost four years later.
The paint on the lights did hold up nicely, and it’s only been in the last year that I’ve noticed the old white finish finally showing through in some areas. I was bracing myself to spray-paint the lights again, but then something occurred to me while I was painting our front door.
What if I used a brush dipped in regular paint, instead of using spray-paint? Hmmm.
Now, my neighbour was in the process of painting her front door at the same time — I had inspired her by doing mine — except she was using a deep charcoal grey (Ash by Fusion Mineral Paint) while I was using bright coral (Coral by Fusion Mineral Paint).
She’d told me she was already planning to paint her gold house numbers with the grey paint, since she had it open. What if she tested my theory by painting her exterior lights, too? Her lights had the standard primer-white finish, and didn’t show up at all against her pale yellow siding.
“You know,” I said to her, padding across the street in my bare feet — looking dishevelled and sweaty in my paint-splattered grubbies. “You could paint your outdoor lights the same grey. You could just use a tiny artist’s brush. You wouldn’t even have to tape off the glass areas!”
She was incredulous, of course — I mean, I hadn’t ever tried it myself! But I assured her the primer-like surface of the lights would be perfect surface for accepting new paint, and that her lights would look much nicer popping instead of blending. After all, she’d already bought the paint for her door (about $27 for the jar) and she wouldn’t use much doing two little lights.
She agreed to try it, and I watched excitedly as she brushed the grey paint onto the first light. Sure enough, a tiny brush was perfect for painting the thin areas of the light without smearing any onto the glass panels. She was finished both lights in no time at all, and the dark grey looked wonderful against the pale yellow siding.
Now that I’ve peer-pressured my neighbour to paint hers, I need to tackle my own chipping outdoor lights! I already have the paint (Coal Black by Fusion Mineral Paint) so I just need to take half an hour and actually paint them.
I’m relieved to know I don’t have to use spray paint this time, because I don’t think my poor siding wants another coat of faint black over-spray.
If you paint your outdoor lights, be sure to send me a photo. I’d love to see them! Remember — light siding looks best with dark lights (black, oil-rubbed bronze, deep grey) so there’s a nice contrast, and vice versa for dark siding.
- COST: $10 or less
- EFFORT: 1 out of 5
- RESULTS: 5 out of 5
Heather Laura Clarke is a crafty maker who perpetually has paint smears on her hands, sawdust in her shoes and bits of thread stuck to her leggings. She lives in Truro with her husband, son, and daughter. Follow her adventures at HeathersHandmadeLife.com.
