Venting!

There are things in my home that well, are just ugly. Things like white plastic outlet covers, white painted stair spindles and air vents. These items are fairly standard in a home and of course can be changed out but how? 

White plastic wall plates. This $1.98 item in my home is one of my biggest peeves. It's white, it's cheap and I have dozens of them in my home. Keep in my that my home is quite colorful so to have  a white plate against pretty color - it's not a good look.

There are two options to rectify this. One is to replace all of them with the wall plate that would match the home. This of course is the best choice in the perfect design world but keep in mind it also can be costly.

This Antique Brass plate would look nice in my home and blend with my color scheme however - at $6.00 each and the large toggle plates are about $12 a piece, it's just not be an option for now.  I would need about 40 of these so do the math - it could add up to a lot of money for just switch plates. 

So, how did I work around this? I bought Rust-oleum Hammered Gold spray paint and painted all of them for under $6. See the cap? That's very close to what my wall plates look like. This is a great temporary fix until you find the plates that will look the best for your home.

White Stair Spindles. This is another standard in many homes. For some homes the white spindles look great but for those of us who don't have any white, these stick out like a sore thumb. 

The options here are to either paint them, stain them or replace them with wrought iron. I'm eventually going to replace mine with black wrought iron.

Home Air Vents. Now these little plates of metal seem to be the biggest issue when I design a color scheme for a home. Why? Because they are white and all over the house. In this case, leaving these white are not an option unless your walls are white. What can you do? Replace them or paint right over them.

These are really beautiful but the problem I have with this is why do your really need to make an air vent so beautiful? In rare cases when you have a particular style home and attention to detail is key, this is a great option. However, many newer homes really don't need a fancy air vent. What to do? Paint them the same color as your wall and make them disappear.

I'm not 100% sure what the best way to do this is, I'm thinking a shot of primer before paint will do but really, just paint right over these vents. Having them the same color as your wall will make them less noticeable.

There … my “venting” is done :-)