lockers

I read an article where a person was looking for pantry ideas; her home didn’t have one, and she wanted something she could put in her kitchen, but without a hefty built-in price tag.
Her solution ended up being lockers.
She retrofitted them with shelves and painted them a bright colour and they were AMAZING!

After that there was no recourse – I had to have me some lockers!

I found a bank of 4 lockers on Kijiji for $100, so I e-mailed immediately to get them.

This is what they looked like when they arrived:

Not bad, I could have just washed them down and used them as-was – but once you’ve seen lockers painted per the article I read – you can’t “settle” for anything less.

Sand ’em down.

Yup, it’s just as important to give metal objects a light sanding before painting as it is for wood. Maybe even more so.
With a smooth surface like metal, painting over top is just asking for it to peel and scratch off.

Another VERY important step before painting metal is priming it. This is going to give the paint something to adhere to as well as stop any rust from bleeding through over time. Because these lockers are going to stay in my garage, I used a primer suitable for outdoor applications.

The main difference between indoor paint and outdoor is that outdoor has a bit more elasticity to it – it allows for the shrinking and expansion of metal and/or wood as the temperature and humidity fluctuates.

Finally, first coat of Benjamin Moore’s Surf City – again in an exterior paint. (click the link to get an accurate view of the colour – it was really tough to get the correct white balance in my garage – sorry)

I LOVE this colour! So fun and beachy and bright!

I didn’t have a paint sprayer when I did this makeover, so these lockers were painted entirely with a brush and a foam roller. A sprayer would have given it a factory-smooth finish, but I think you can see that the finish on these is crisp and clean even without the sprayer.

Time to organize my beauties:

Chloë is/was all about sidewalk chalk and roller blades.

Madison has an April birthday, so she always receives extra outdoor toys come Spring.

Hubby is the main reason I needed lockers to begin with – I’m not sure that there is a sport he doesn’t have equipment for – so much in fact, that he takes up 2 lockers with all of his gear!

Vintage lockers, school lockers, metal lockers, bank of lockers, locker makeover

I bought these monograms from the Silhouette Studio and cut them on adhesive vinyl for that final little “touch”. I’m not sure the photos do it justice – but it really looks FANTASTIC!

AND all that crap is off of the garage floor so it won’t collect dirt and dust and I won’t have to trip over it when working in the garage.

I have to say – this is one of my favourite projects.