Rainbow Fan

Josh actually saw this idea somewhere and we both loved it and wanted to give it a shot. A DIY rainbow fan! Here was the inspiration:

I was impressed--pretty sweet, huh? I needed an excuse to buy a new (taller) fan anyways, so I decided this was the perfect opportunity to get creative. I picked up a fan for $26 at Target, some painter's tape, and spray paint in red, yellow, and blue. BEFORE YOU BEGIN--get a fan that has a slow spinning blade. Otherwise--let's just say, don't expect the above picture unless you have a camera with a slow shutter speed.

Materials:
-a fan
-scissors
-a razor
-a flat edged tool (like a paint can opener)
-painter's tape
-newspaper (to protect your work area)
-spray paint in red, yellow, and blue

1. Remove the fan blade from the fan. Cover the middle piece well with painter's tape.

2. Smooth down the edges of the painter's tape with a flat edged tool (we used a paint can opener).

3. Carefully remove the tape that overlaps onto the blade for a more perfect edge.

4. So, in retrospect, I would have tightly wrapped each blade I was not currently painting with saran wrap or something. I was lazy and just laid ripped up cardboard pieces from the box the fan came in onto the other 2 blades. The result wasn't horrible, but not as perfect as I would like.

5. Cover your workspace in newspaper. Spray the first blade with red spray paint, covering it evenly. Don't hold the can too close--just use a thin layer of paint (I will tell you why in a little bit!). Allow to try a solid 45 minutes, just to be safe.

6. Cover the other 2 blades and spray the second blade with yellow spray paint. Allow to dry for 45 minutes. Here's a fun story--we used too much paint because the yellow was initially too light, and the paint ran and clumped and dried in the middle and looked like SHIGGENS. Oops! So we sanded the plastic blade with sandpaper which resulted in it being all scratched up. SHIGGENS! We repainted it with 2 coats of yellow paint.

7. Cover the other 2 blades and spray the third blade with blue spray paint. Allow to dry for 45 minutes.

6. Remove the painter's tape. If touch ups are necessary--don't spray them! Simply get a paintbrush and do the touch ups by hand.

7. Reattach the blade onto the fan.  

8. Turn the fan on. Moment of truth! Here's what we got:

Well, dang it! It just looked light yellow, even on the lowest setting. However, when we turned it off, I snapped a pic and got a good one of what we WISHED it looked like, which was:

Well, it was a fun project, nonetheless, but I was a little disappointed, to say the least. Can't win 'em all, I guess! :)