The content below has been reposted with permission from Monika Hibbs.
A fresh coat of paint changes everything. It’s the best way to refresh a room, whether it be in your home or rental space. A home painting project is a great thing to add to your to-do checklist before spring hits. In our bungalow (rental), we had a couple of items that still needed a little attention to detail to pull the space together and make it feel like our own. In our living room area, there is a large set of old windows (I am really thankful to have so much natural light in here); however, one thing that was bothering me was the old wood trim around the windows. It was a faded yellow that really wasn’t doing the windows any justice. Since this is a rental, we are definitely picking and choosing what we spend money/time on updating. We just wanted the space to feel more like a home, as we will be here until the new house is completed. Something as simple as painting the trim was a quick fix to make the windows look design worthy and be more cohesive with the decor in the space.
Let us introduce you to our friends over at Product Care< Recycling, an amazing not-for-profit that manages recycling programs across Canada for products like paint, household hazardous waste, lights, and smoke and CO alarms. I’m always cautious about recycling our paint correctly and have always taken the care to do. One thing that took me by pleasant surprise is that you’re not only able to recycle paint, but you are also able to go and pick up free leftover paint to reuse for your own projects through their community-driven PaintShare program! That means the paint actually gets used up and lives out its full intended life without any waste, and it’s free!
With our small window painting project, I only needed a ¼ gallon of paint to update the window frame and trim. I also decided to put a quick coat of paint on the back of the door in the living room for a consistent paint colour. We looked through the paint at our nearest recycling location that offers Product Care’s PaintShare program and we’re excited to see that they had some really great options. Lots of light greys, tons of white and this gorgeous blue-grey colour that I’ve been seeing a lot of over Pinterest and Instagram.
I can’t believe what a difference a simple coat on the window frame, trim and door made to our main living space, it was the perfect little refresh. It was a great reminder that it really is those small updates that can help transform a room. If you’re nervous to introduce colour into your home, little things like trim and doors are a perfect way to add just the right amount of colour into your space.
As for leftover paint, we’ve thought of many projects that this could be handy for. From dip painted chairs legs to painting an old bookshelf, dresser or any small piece of furniture; the DIY painting projects are seriously endless. Here at MH, we are often purchasing sample cans from our local paint stores, which still cost you around $10 and really not a lot of paint at all. The great news is that many of Product Care’s PaintShare locations can have endless cans of paint for you to use and it’s environmentally friendly and absolutely free of charge… yes FREE! Start the car, head down to your local recycling location that offers the PaintShare program, take a few minutes to sift through the colours and then let your creativity take the wheel. How amazing is that? Now just to think about our next project to paint and update!
You won’t believe the before photo below!
Find your nearest PaintShare location using our recycling locator.
