Updating Brass Wood Fans to Modern Matte Black

When we painted all the ceilings white, we took down the ceiling fans in every single room. We had 6 fans total, one in every bedroom, one in the living room, and two in the kitchen (I still don't like fans in the kitchen). They were Hunter fans, a great long lasting brand, but extremely dirty and outdated colors. My undying go-to in these situations: matte black spray paint. We spray painted our 70's fridge, our hallway light, and our door hardware, and every one of them turned out great. This quick DIY took two cans of spray paint, so only $12! That beats having to spend $400 for 4 new fans.

This is the only photo of our actual fan light in action in our master bedroom I could find. I guess I didn't want to take pictures of the ugliness? But I found one just like it at Home Depot with the brass base and wood blades, just imagine it with a layer of grime (ew). Even though they would have been perfectly fine and not too bad looking if we had just cleaned them up, the matte black goes with our style better and makes them feel newer than they are. I'm not a fan at all (haha, pun intended) of fans that are also lights. Overhead lighting in the middle of the room is unflattering and often too bright. The ideal situation is can lights on the ceiling and a few lamps.

After we pulled them off the ceiling, I laid them out and taped off all the electrical wires, then sprayed them all with this Rustoleum matte black spray paint ($6). I painted the fronts and the backs twice. You want to make sure to paint the sides that face the ceiling because even if it doesn't seem like it, you are going to see bits of those sides - so why not go ahead and paint them while you have them down.

We are slowly but surely unpacking and getting things set up a little at a time. I now understand why people say it takes months to unpack and get settled! We've been here for almost two months and have just gotten our dishes completely unpacked. I still have so much to put places but need to get more furniture to store everything. We're on the look out for an antique desk for the home office and a bigger dining room table.

We also inherited an awesome fake plant that is sitting in the corner of our bedroom temporarily. After trying to keep the ferns in the house that we bought for our wedding and almost killing it, I gave it back to my mom and she gave me her beautiful big fake plant haha. I know there are house plant snobs that think fake plants don't have a place in a home, but if those guys were me I think they would appreciate fake life than no life. Right now I've got this pretty fiddle leaf fig on my wish list! But the fans look great and the smallest changes can make the biggest difference. Have you tried the spray paint trick anywhere?!