DIY Painted Vintage Owl Lamp

I shared this little vintage owl lamp on my Facebook and Instagram pages a few weeks ago and asked you guys what I should do with him... "To Spray or not to Spray Paint?"....

On Instagram everyone said to spray; some suggested that a white or gold would look good and Monica from East Coast Creative said spray then glaze him! However, on Facebook the ruling went a bit differently; three said to leave as is, while two said to SPRAY, SPRAY, SPRAY! 

Can you believe we actually left him in this condition for a few years?! 

Well after thinking about it a little while longer and consulting my aunt Eileen, who was his first owner, I decided that spray painting him wasn't the way to go. We didn't want an allover color, nor did we want to lose his awesome features. So instead we decided to use Testors Acrylic modeling paint...

I'm not sure how long my husband has been keeping these around for, but before we met he used to paint model trucks as a hobby and these little bottles have been sitting in the garage just waiting to be used again. 

The paint colors we used were a glossy black, yellow, gold, and a ghost grey that Mike (my husband!) mixed with the black to get a darker grey tone for the face and stomach of the owl. 

As you can see he was very excited to help me with this DIY project, hmm maybe for Father's Day I should stop at Michaels Stores to buy him a model truck or car he can paint!

 In the top right photo you'll notice that at first we kept the black spots on Mr. Owl's belly, but I really wasn't loving the look. 

We went back and forth about the spots, he loved them and I didn't. So I figured we could paint his stomach completely grey and if we wanted to add the spots back on we could! Well, I won that round...the black spots stayed away!  

I really love his transformation and I'm so happy that we decided to hand paint his makeover instead of just spraying one overall color on him. What I love even more is that my husband and I did this together and I can't wait for more DIY projects to tackle with him. 

So, what do you guys think? Would you have spray painted him allover, or do you like what we did? The eyes were the most difficult to hand-paint, we wanted them to be exact but it can be tough to get the shape and size to match up perfectly. The final look of his eyes are probably the tenth pair we gave him!

Remember my owl bookends that I spray painted...

Well, they definitely need an overall color makeover, but I'm not sure that I'm digging the white any more. I wonder how a turquoise or navy blue would look?! 

What are some DIY paint projects you have been up to lately? 

Thanks for stopping by today, have a safe and Happy Memorial Day weekend, don't forget to remember and honor our troops. 

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