Sunday, June 24, 2012

Range Hood Re-do

The paint has been peeling off of our kitchen's range hood for the past five years. Most people would consider it an unbearable eyesore, but its amazing what you can get used to when you see it everyday. I'd been meaning to repaint it for some time, but it just wasn't all that pressing since the rest of the kitchen kind of matched. Now with the new paint, hardware, and everything else, its gotten a bit harder to ignore.



I know. Its terrible.


I decided this would be the perfect weekend to give it a try. I'm not at all ashamed to admit this project was very ambitious and possibly a little beyond my skill level. Thankfully, my husband was home to help me out. Plus, I figured that even if I messed up horribly, it still couldn't end up looking much worse than it already did.




This was a very cheap project because I didn't have to go out and get a bunch of supplies. Besides the degreaser and spray paint, most of what I needed was already lying around the house.





My husband started by taking down the hood, removing the wiring, light bulb, fan and filter. I just watched this part. We took pictures of the wiring so that he would know how to reassemble it. Outside, I sprayed the hood down with the heavy duty auto degreaser. We sprayed the filter as well, but left that in the sink to soak. Outside, I began scraping off what I could with a paint scraper. The front area peeled away fairly easily, but the sides and rear required a bit more effort. I removed the rest by alternating between wet sanding and using a metal brush.




I decided to leave the paint on the sides and top because it wasn't peeling and wouldn't be seen once it was re-installed. After letting the hood dry overnight, I was excited to get back to work in the morning. I started by applying several thin layers of primer (spray paint of course). This worked really well to hide any light scratches that were left by the sanding.




 After letting it dry for an hour I began applying the main color. I had picked out a satin color called Sparkling Canyon. I was hoping that it would come close to matching the copper switch plates I had recently installed, but after finishing I found that it was much too light, and looked too modern in comparison to the rest of the kitchen. Luckily, I had some leftover darker metallic copper that I had used for a previous project. I layered the two paints over one another to create a color much closer to what I was hoping for. I suppose its important to note that I didn't use any specialty appliance spray paint. I don't think that our range hood gets hot enough to cause any problems. Plus, I had a very specific idea for the color I wanted. Most appliance paints only come in black, white and maybe red. After letting everything dry, my husband put everything back together again.




I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, but I'm not gonna lie, sanding was a lot of work. Definitely worth it though. And look at that grease filter...




I only wish that I had been able to get more of an aged copper look, to go with the feel of the rest of the house. I know its a silly thing to complain about, that something looks too new, but I love the personality that comes along with age. 

6 comments:

  1. Awesome, Lilly! You are so talented. We have a multi-tool for small sanding and corner work. You can borrow for your next project!
    Maria

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for posting this, I am considering painting my hood to look like brass with rub on paint and this is the first diy metallic look paint job for a range hood that I have seen. And it looks good. I have never personally tried this technique, but for an aged look I have seen people use a brown glaze to go over the edges.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for the advice! I would love to see how it turns out if you decide to go through with it. Is the glaze something that I would find at a hardware store or is it more of a craft store specialty?

      Delete
  3. Lilly, I have the exact same hood as yours and have the same problem. This tutorial is very helpful and I wanted ask how well it's holding up? It seems like you did this DIY in 2012, are the colors still good and the paint not chipping? Please let me know. Thank you so much.

    ReplyDelete
  4. thanks for this tutorial i am considering doing the same thing but, a different color. I am renting and the range hood is total a different color and will not be change out so, decided to do this.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow, your hood looks just like mine! I'm in a rental though and even though I hate my range, I don't think that I could paint it stainless steel silver. Maybe a simple white? Or cream? Because currently it just looks so yellow and it was like this when I first rented :(

    ReplyDelete