RUST Effect and Color Shelving

It isn‘t always possible, or necessary, to buy expensive shelving for simple storage problems. Just as it isn‘t always simple to find storage shelves that look good and do the job well. Although available in just about any hardware store, the classic DIY metal shelves may do a great job when it comes to storing your books and belongings, but often the way they look is not exactly what you want inside your home. In this project, we fix two problems at once using Montana RUST Effect Spray, and our favorite Montana GOLD colors. Sound tempting? Read on.

HOW IT WAS DONE Our shelves came from the local big-box hardware store that had a few variations of shelving available. Some came with wooden inserts which we liked, others were completely metal. Should yours be metal only but you like the idea of wooden shelf inserts, ask their wood department if you can also purchase some cutto-size pieces of plywood to fit onto your shelves. The first step to vitalizing our very standard metal shelving was to sandpaper the surface of every piece of shelving lightly while it was still in pieces. This created light abrasion for our paint to stick to. The same goes for the wood inserts if they apply to you. You don‘t need to do a great amount of work here, just ensure that your sandpaper is fine and that all your pieces are clean, dry, and dust-free before painting. Reverting back to our regular practice of shaking our cans vigorously for 2-3 minutes and removing the black safety ring from the nozzle where applicable, we then started by priming all the metal pieces, which were either laid down on our drop sheet or propped up in our protected painting space. Using the Montana Metal PRIMER Spray, we applied thin, even coats to each piece. While this was drying, we took our wooden shelf inserts (if applicable to you), and also coated them in thin even coats. But this we did with the Montana Universal PRIMER Spray. We suggest priming both sides of the wood to avoid it warping. Once all our primed metal parts were dry, the next step was to give them a touch of rust effect. Starting with our Montana RUST Effect Spray in the color Brown, we coated all our pieces as desired. This became the basis of the rust effect. If your shelving has no wooden inserts, place the flat metal shelving pieces aside. We will color them later. If you do have wooden shelf inserts, you can apply RUST Effect Spray only to the sides of the metal shelves as the inner parts will be covered by the wood inserts. Once all these metal parts were dry, we grabbed our Montana RUST Effect Spray in Brown Orange which is lighter and added some highlighting touches. This made the effect look more organic and natural as if our shelves had aged and weathered naturally outside in the elements. The final touch was to add color. Using our favorite Montana GOLD colors, we took our first pre-primed wooden shelf insert and applied one color. Spraying in slow sweeping motions from side to side, we ensured that our coats went on evenly. You can recoat once dry if you desire. We chose to change color for each shelf, however, you could use one throughout if you prefer. If your shelves are all metal, the same technique applies. Apply one color to each pre-primed shelf insert, and work in sweeping motions from side to side. A small tip; why not try the Montana Flat Jet Cap medium on your Montana GOLD cans when painting the flat surfaces. It gives a great finish making it easy to avoid drips and inconsistencies. All the hard work was now done! Or at least most of it. We left all our pieces to dry for 24 hours or more. Even though everything already looked great, before we put it all back together there was only one last step we wanted to take. Turning to our trusty Montana VARNISH Spray in the finish of your choice (we chose GLOSS), we applied thin even coats to all pieces (metal and wood) as desired. This was the icing on the cake that not only gave our shelves a look in one singular finish, but also protected our shelves from scratches, chipping, UV exposure, and general wear and tear. Again, we left it all to dry overnight before putting the shelves together.

Although there are only 1-2 hours of actual work, the whole project would need to be planned over at least 3-4 separate sessions. One for sanding and priming (allow to dry), one for applying the color (allow to dry), one for applying the varnish (allow to dry), and the final to put it all together again. Able to be done by all skill levels, you are bound to have fun with this project whether you‘re a beginner or a pro. Now to figure out what to put in our cool new shelving? Well done and Happy Crafting!

MATERIALS USED • Montana RUST Effect Spray Brown • Montana RUST Effect Spray Orange • Montana Metal PRIMER Spray • Montana Universal PRIMER Spray • Montana GOLD Lychee • Montana GOLD Light Lilac • Montana VARNISH Spray Gloss

• Metal shelving • Wooden shelf inserts (optional) • Fine sandpaper • Gloves • Mask • Drop Sheet

Pantone Inspired Colorway 2021

The Pantone color trends have been major influencing trends for design, fashion, homewares, and all things color for many years. And we must be honest, we think they get it pretty right most of the time. Each year their team introduces a new set of colors that inspire both independently, as well as when they are together as a colorway. „So, what are the 2021 colors this year?“, we hear you asking. The colors announced for 2021 are Ultimate Gray and Illuminating. Colors that are both solid, uplifting, optimistic, and warm. All the things one needs, after putting a year like 2020 behind us.

The whole thing got us thinking, and you guessed it, we got inspired. The result was a Pantone-inspired colorway project in celebration of the 2021 colors. And of course, you can also find similar colors within the Montana color ranges in a variety of their paint lines. We chose Montana METALLIC Silver, Montana GOLD Asphalt, Vanilla, and Easter Yellow. Interested in seeing what we did, Read on.

HOW WE DID IT The European winter is ending, the sun is shining again, and the new 2021 Pantone colors have been announced. What a great opportunity to update our office or our workspace. Or any other room you think needs it. Our focus was on the ceramic planter pots that housed our little cacti, a wooden desktop organizer that was begging for a facelift, a hole punch as we hadn‘t thought of that before, and a complimentary piece of a wooden board (or MDF particle board) for general decoration and surface protection.

CERAMIC PLANTER POTS The small white planter pots were ambient decoration on our desks up until now. Therefore, it occurred to us to bring them to the fore a little. Starting with the biggest one, after it was cleaned and dried, we applied a complete coat of Montana GOLD in the color Easter Yellow. Inside and out, we sprayed one side while in a standing position, the other upside down once the inside had dried. We then allowed the whole pot to dry and then masked the top half off with our masking tape so that it would stay yellow where covered. While we were using the tape, we also masked triangular shapes into two of the small pots which we were going to spray a different color each. One pot was left completely white as a complementary color to our wooden board, which we will get to later. The remaining half of the big pot was sprayed with Montana METALLIC Effect Spray in the color Silver, and the two smaller pots had their triangles painted in either Asphalt or Easter Yellow from the Montana GOLD range. We left them all to dry overnight.

WOODEN DESKTOP ORGANIZER Our wooden desktop organizer was one of those classic musthaves that gets daily use on our desk and was more than overdue that we gave it a little color. Ours was smooth and clean, but you may need to lightly sand with fine sandpaper, clean, and dust off in preparation for painting. And the rest was easy. Take the draws out, place it all on our drop sheet, spray, let dry, turn, and repeat. You can do multiple coats if desired. Let it all dry overnight, place the draws back in, and it‘s ready to go.

HOLE PUNCH The hole punch is one of those instruments that always gets looked over. Not this time! We removed any loose parts that could be reapplied, gave it a clean and a dry, and then sprayed it with the Montana GOLD color Vanilla. Once dry we reapplied anything we removed, and it was ready to go back into service.

WOODEN BOARD Our little wooden board was a logical add-on to our new look workspace. Ours was a piece of MDF that was clean and smooth. This or any other clean and smooth wood could be used. If required, give it a light sanding with some fine sandpaper and then clean it off in readiness for painting. You can either spray the whole board the color you want to start with on both sides and leave it to dry or mask off the area you want to seal off and apply your first color to the unmasked section. Once dry, repeat this process by covering the already painted side and cover the side you want to apply the second color onto. We recommend coating the whole board once on both sides if it is thin, to avoid it warping if only one side is covered. Our color combination was Montana GOLD Vanilla and Asphalt.

Naturally, remember to shake all cans well for 2-3 minutes before use so you can hear the mixing ball moving freely. If required, turn the can upside-down and remove the nozzle, allowing the back safety ring to fall out. Reapply the nozzle and do a test spray in a direction away from everything.

This is an easy project that is ideal for any level. There is about an hour of work involved to complete all pieces, but it could be faster if you chose straight color applications rather than masking and creating application shapes. You can increase or decrease the difficulty by doing simple or complicated masking work. When it‘s all done, you can look at your fantastic handy work and feel like a Scandanavian designer in your own home or office. Well done and Happy Crafting.

MATERIALS USED • Montana GOLD Asphalt • Montana GOLD Vanilla • Montana GOLD Easter Yellow • Montana METALLIC Silver • Ceramic planter pots • Wooden desktop organizer • Hole punch • Wooden board (or MDF particle board) • Sandpaper (optional) • Masking tape • Gloves • Mask • Drop Sheet