Putting lipstick on a pig

I was SUPER-productive over the weekend.

And my weekend included yesterday, because my office was closed yesterday. BOO-YAH.

I worked at the new house on Saturday and Sunday, and I got the master bedroom completely painted. I also took on a completely ROTTEN project at our current house that I'm about to share with you: I painted the brass surround of our master shower with an oil-rubbed bronze paint to update it.

(I did something similar with our brass fireplace surround five years ago.) (It was not as painful as this project was.)

This is what we started with. I'm sure some of you have a similar shower door.

We've lived with it for 15 years, and I've wanted to replace it for 15 years.

Of course, now that we're getting ready to put the house on the market, this is one of the things that's moved to the top of my list.

Brassy brass brass.

PLENTY OF IT.

If I were one of those well-known DIY/home bloggers, this would probably be there point where I'd tell you that "This project only takes three materials and 30 minutes."

LIES. If anyone tells you that, it's all LIES, Internet.

Well, I DID only need painter's tape, paint and newspaper. But it was really time-intensive, and the overspray and PAINTDUST were epic. The overspray was my fault. The paintdust was just ... my heavens. Here's the paint I used:

And here's the solid job I did taping up the area, which I mirrored inside the door.

As I said, any overspray was my fault -- meaning areas where the actual SPRAY from the can went outside the taped area. I could've taped wider, and I actually did. I didn't take a picture of it, but before I started painting, I went back and taped off about two or three more inches all the way around.

All overspray means is more cleanup, and I just used paint thinner and toilet paper to wipe off excess paint after I was done. No biggie.

But the dust. THE DUST. It was EVERYWHERE. It was like a quarter of an inch thick and it coated EVERYTHING. The toilet, the shower floor, the bathroom floor, the countertops, all of our toiletries, the doors, the walls ... I mean, it was crazy.

In the end, I spent more time cleaning up than I did working on the project itself.

Still, I suppose I'm glad I did it. Here's how it came out:

It's not a stark black, although it kind of looks like that in these photos. It's what the can indicates ... "oil-rubbed bronze." I think it's just because of the artificial light ... but I'm happy with the finish.

(I know that line above kind of looks like a mess, but I was trying to stick with the original lines of the caulk. If you scroll back up and look at how it was before, it's pretty close.)

So, before and after. Glad I did it, but hope I don't have to do it again! Have any of you ever tackled this project?