Last week, whilst tidying the living room, I came across an old coat hanger retired on top of the bookshelf. Although the paint had rubbed away in places through daily usage, the piece was still very much usable so I decided to give it a makeover.
The photo on the left shows the coat hanger disassembled. I then gave it a thorough but light sand all over, including the metal hangers themselves.
Most household items that need a spuce up can be done so easily with just a light sand and consequent clean for the primer to adhere to it.
The next step was to give the piece a couple of coats of primer, I used gesso for this but watered down acrylic or water based emulsion would have been fine too.
I kept the piece disassembled, only placing the hangers in their postions to allow them to dry between coats. This made painting the panel much easier especially as I was considering applying a different colour to the hangers as I was the panel.
After these layers of primer had dried, I mixed a very pale sage green colour as the background colour for the panel. For this I used a mixture of titanium white, with a dash of cadmium yellow and ultramarine. This colour looks fresh and makes a beautifully subtle foil for the more detailed design I had in mind to finish.
As you may notice, the coat hangers are still white in this photo. I was in two minds at the time whether or not to paint them white to give contrast or paint them the same colour as the panel to give the piece continuity.
For the design, I took inspiration from our garden that is presently full of lavender and as such attracting many bees. It is wonderful to watch them and it is interesting to see how each variety of lavender appeals to particular species of bee.
To paint these delicate flowers, I used a mixture of ultramarine, vermillion red and titanium white. Using the vase of freshly picked specimens to paint from, I mixed different shades of mauve to give depth to the flower buds.
I painted each bud using a fine brush to apply a dark shade of mauve before then adding a dab of lighter mauve over part of this to show where the light was hitting it.
Under many of the flower buds sits a leaf, with a warm, autumnal brown glow. I used a mixture of vermillion red, cadmium yellow, titanium white and a small dash of ultramarine to paint this. I kept it quite subtle to add interest without being overpowering.
I painted the leaves in an impressionist manner. In most instances using a fine brush to paint them, while in others using a flat brush edge to dab marks that appear like fine, pointy leaves. The subtle green colour was mixed using ultramarine, cadmium yellow and titanium white. As with the flower buds, I used varying shades to indicate depth.
In the end I decided to paint the hangers the same colour as the rest to tie the piece together. I waited until I had finished painting the panel so I could see how it would look. I felt the white hanger looked very stark against the panel with its new appearance and having no white in the design, there was no connection there.
After a couple of coats of clear varnish to protect it against daily wear and tear, the coat hanger is ready to use.