In all my picture taking of what I’ve done to the kitchen, I have carefully avoided one thing — the ceiling fan. You can see why. It was like an ugly albatross hanging there.

I was dead set against spending money on a new one and when I’d look at it I’d mentally mumble something along the lines of “The next people who own the house can do something about that…” But it bugged me that it had absolutely nothing to do with anything I’d done to the rest of the kitchen.

So I looked online to see if anyone had painted a fan and there were a few who had. My concern was about spraying paint into the motor and what effect that would have, but no one seemed to address that.

I picked up a $5 can of Valspar Brushed Nickel Spray Paint, a new set of fan and light pulls in black and thought for $8 I’d see if I could make the fan look a little better and at least go with the brushed nickel light fixtures over the sink and island.

Disassembling and cleaning

I removed the fan blades and the light fixture. I lucked out and the housing came off and I could leave the heavy fan motor hanging. Everything was filthy so they had to be cleaned first. I thoroughly dusted the motor to remove cobwebs and thick dust. The metal parts cleaned up easily. I started washing the blades and black stuff started rolling off the side that had been on top. I realized there was a layer of black, greasy dust on the tops and edges of the blades — it was gross and paint would never stick to it. I had to use a scrubby and scrub hard to get it off.

I was completely undecided what color to paint the blades, black or white, and set them aside to dry and worked on the metal parts.

Painting

I took the metal parts outside and sprayed the blade brackets, light fixture, and motor cover. I liked the brush nickel paint so much I decided I would probably paint a couple of living room lamp with it when I paint my end tables. If you added a clear top coat to give it some shine I think it would look exactly like the other brushed nickel fixtures I had. I decided to skip that step for the fan though.

In an effort to not have to take the motor down I sprayed some of the paint in a plastic cup and ran in the house and painted the exposed metal on the motor housing that led to the light. There were so many wires crammed inside I didn’t want to remove it. I had to move fast before the paint dried in the cup. It didn’t look perfect, but it looked good enough for up on the ceiling where no one would see it closely.

Two coats of paint and the metal parts were ready to go.

Fan Blades

After looking at images of brushed nickel fans on the internet I decided black was the only good color for the blades. Since there’s black hardware in the kitchen it would go well too. I sprayed the plain side of the blades and edges and left the decorative side as is. I had leftover black paint from the chalkboard I had made for the kitchen.

Putting it back together

I attached the motor cover and the light fixture and didn’t think my hand painted part looked too bad.

The CFL bulb was for testing that I had wired the light fixture correctly. I hated that CFL and replaced it.

Here’s the finished fan. Granted it’s still a really ugly fan, but at least it goes with the kitchen now. I couldn’t believe what a cheap, easy, and quick project this was. If you have a ceiling fan that doesn’t match – Paint it!