The registers in our future playroom and upstairs bathroom were starting to look a little worn.
Before
OK, that’s not really accurate. They were flat out gross, covered in years and years of dust and rust spots. And with painting the walls white, the dirty almond-colored registers would have stuck out pretty badly.
Before
New registers would have cost about $10 each, so I decided to go with the cheaper option of a $4 can of white spray paint.
After giving them a good scrub, I sprayed the fronts lightly. One coat and they looked like I just brought them home from Lowes! You can see the difference in the photo above. About 24 hours later, after the fronts were completely dry, I flipped them over and sprayed all the crevices and flaps from the back.
If I had to go do it all over again, I would do the backs first and the fronts last. The newly painted fronts got a bit marred while the backs were drying and I ended up having to give the fronts a second coat.
It’s important not to forget the screws!
Spray painting them is super easy when you stick them upright into something like a piece of styrofoam or cardboard. I used one of those molded pieces of cardboard from some packaging.
They really do look almost brand new. And it was so simple, I’ve been searching the house for more registers that might need an update.
Great idea. I was just looking at my floor ones trying to figure out when I was going to be able to spend a ton of money replacing all the tan ugliness!
Did you use a special kind of spraypaint, or just generic spraypaint?
Hi April,
I just used a regular spray paint. No need to get fancy! If you’re worried about the paint sticking to a smooth surface, you can use one with primer built in. Good luck!