The Midas Touch {With Spraypaint}

See those shoes?  Those babies are five years old and they have a special place in my heart.  I bought them specifically to wear to my college graduation.

As someone who had to be talked into going to her graduation, these shoes were picked out on the fly to go with a dress that was also picked on the fly that went under a black robe.

I ended up being quite thankful for those shoes in the coming months after graduation; they were the only pair of professional shoes that I owned.  I have worn them to work faithfully the past five years and needless to say, they were getting a little scuffed.

Fast forward to last week:  I fortuitously inherited a can of metallic gold spray paint from my team teacher.  I came home with visions of grandeur:  I was going to spray paint everything bright gold!  It would be as if Midas himself lived in our home.

Oh, the best laid plans of mice and men.  The hubs nixed all my ideas (from the decorative vase to the bathroom wastebasket to the computer chair).  I was at a loss; what was I going to use my spray paint on?

Then, a lightbulb of inspiration flickered in my head: a pair of my shoes!  A few months ago, I read a blog from my sweet bloggy friend Sharde who showed that a simple can of spray paint can convert an old pair of shoes into new, custom footwear. 

But which shoes?

I looked in my closet, which is still a complete wreck.  I came across my college graduation heels and knew they were the perfect candidates for my experiment. 

A little scuffed, but nice and broken in.  My feet never get sore when I wear these and I knew all they needed was a new coat of paint to be like new again.

 Want to see how I did it?  First, I grabbed my materials:

I love low materials projects, don't you?

Since I didn't want to get gold paint on the inside of my shoes, I stuffed them with newspaper.

Spraying the shoes proved to be the difficult part, given that the wind was blowing and that the shoes have a lot of contours and curves that can be difficult to get an even coat on.

I thought laying the shoes down would be better but ultimately I think it was a mistake.  There were a lot of streaks.

I applied to coats of the gold, waiting 15 minutes in between each coat.

Today, they were ready to wear!

Midas himself would be proud.  Hmm, what else can I spray paint gold...do you think Toph would mind if I got ahold of some of those blocks?

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