If you’re obsessed with CraigsList like I am, then this tutorial and makeover should be super easy and so worth it. I’ve been wanting to add a set of vintage metal school lockers to my home for so long and just haven’t found the perfect set or even the perfect room to stage them in, until now!
I found a set of metal lockers on CraigsList for $75 and off to Grand Rapids my husband and I went. I knew I wanted the half door lockers for our nursery renovation and it took me months to find the perfect set. They were an ugly cream color to begin with but barely had any rust spots or scratches. I quickly used a sanding block over the rust spots, hammered out any dents, then drove to the store for some Rustoleum brand spray paint. I used this because it helps prevent rusting which is very common in metal lockers. Some tutorials I read said to use a rust spray first then a paint but I used the two in one paint.
This is the exact spray paint I used. It stops rust while also covering in a semi-gloss white paint. For the whole set of lockers I used about 6 cans of this for an even cover. Each can costs about $3.88 depending on where you buy it (you can find it at many stores). This may seem a bit expensive considering the cost of the lockers too but most lockers that are in decent shape sell for $200+ online, so to me it was so worth it.
Items you need are:
- (6) Cans Rustoleum Spray Paint
- (1) Sanding Block
- (1) Roll Painter’s Tape
Here’s a before of my locker set–Ugly cream color but great shape!
And my lockers during! I taped over the metal latch part because I wanted to keep this in it’s original silver shape. I just used painter’s tape, any brand will work.
It took about three to four coats of spray paint to get an even coverage and in between each coat of paint I lightly sanded with a sanding block so that my lockers had a somewhat smooth finish. Of course when using spray paint, you will never get a super smooth finish. You can also finish it off with a clear coat to protect your lockers, I chose to skip this step because every time I have used a poly, my furniture yellows over time.
Here is my finished lockers in our recently finished nursery: (Check out my next blog post for more details on this room from start to finish!)
I suggest connecting the lockers to the wall somehow just so curious little hands don’t knock them down! We used a 1 x 6″ board and just drilled this to the wall and drilled the lockers to the piece of wood on both the top and bottom part of the lockers.
Happy painting!
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