How To Update Floor Registers

If you accept rusty vent covers, don't replace them! Let me teach you how to pigment metal vent covers easily and quickly in this step-by-step tutorial. You'll be surprised by how much better your heat registers will wait with minimal effort!

How to paint metal floor vents with spray paint

It's the niggling things that irk me.

Sure, the daily paper clutter and piles of dishes in the kitchen sink make me groan. That's expected.

But sometimes, I become hung up on the smallest detail in my home and demand to set information technology immediately or else the thought of it consumes me.

Aye, I acknowledge that's a bit dramatic, merely I'k OCD about totally random things.

My old metallic flooring vents (aka heat registers) are one of the random things I strongly cared about one contempo Sunday afternoon. Luckily, making them await new was an easy and pretty quick DIY project.

Our dining room is one of the few rooms in our Garrison colonial home that has floor vents for the forced-air oestrus and air conditioning. Most of the rooms have baseboard units.

Every fourth dimension I let the domestic dog out through the back door, I walked by the nasty, rusty vent covers on our dining room floor.

Although I painted our powder room'south vent covers ii years ago, I never got effectually to doing these (Why? Information technology'south such a quick set!).

The transformation is pretty awesome and it's a quick spray paint projection anyone can do (seriously, fifty-fifty the to the lowest degree do-it-herself amongst united states of america).

Without further ado, I'll show you how to paint metallic vent covers then they won't be an eyesore for another second.

Should you paint vent covers?

When I starting time considered whether or not to paint the floor vent in our powder room, I worried if the heat coming up through the vent would affect the paint. Or worse, create a toxic aroma.

All I could think of was how the landlady of my old apartment painted the hot-h2o radiators with regular wall paint. As soon as the oestrus turned on in the fall, the whole place smelled terrible as the paint burned off!

But, radiators get much hotter than flooring vents. I spray painted the metal floor vent in our powder room ii years ago and haven't experienced any aroma. Plus, the paint job's held up over time.

Got ugly heating vent covers? Learn how to give them an easy and fast makeover!

How to Paint Metal Vent Covers: Supplies You'll Need

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Here's what you'll need to spray pigment rusty metal floor vents (aka heat registers):

Rustoleum paint & primer in 1 spray paint (I used oil-rubbed statuary to paint these floor vent covers.)
Sanding cake/paper for metallic (optional – I skipped this step)
Empty cardboard box

If you're wondering what color flooring registers should exist, I suggest selecting a colour that coordinates with the surface the annals/vent is on.

Is your floor mid-dark forest like mine? Then oil-rubbed bronze spray paint looks great.

If the vent is on a ceiling (I have one in my principal bath), then choose white to coordinate with your ceiling pigment.

You tin can as well match your floor vents with nearby hardware, such as doorknobs.

How to Spray Paint Metal Vent Covers

How to spray paint metal floor vent covers - rusty vent covers in boxes ready to spray paint

Pace 1: Make clean the floor vents

You lot'll need to clean the flooring vents before spray painting them. Since I simply painted 2, I done them by hand in the sink and used an old toothbrush to clean the narrow gaps. If you plan to pigment a lot of floor vents at the same time, popular them in the dishwasher to remove dust and grime.

Step two: Remove the rust

This is an optional pace, and one I skipped because I'm lazy and busy. Rusty vent covers will cause the spray paint to attach unevenly. If y'all intendance about perfection – which I don't – use a sanding cake for metal to remove the rust.

Step three: Spray paint the metal vent covers

Head outside to your driveway or garage (door open!) and pop the vent covers in a cardboard box to contain the over-spray. Give the spray paint can a good shake, then use fifty-fifty strokes to use the paint. Let dry, then add together some other coat or two until you've achieved solid coverage.

Exist sure to turn the vent cover over then you can pigment both sides.

Rusty Vent Covers Exist Gone!

Now that you know how to paint metal vent covers, yous tin quickly give all your rusty vent covers a makeover in no fourth dimension. This is a really quick DIY project you tin can knock out in an afternoon. The hardest part is waiting for the paint to dry!

How to spray paint metal vent covers - rusty floor vent makeover tutorial

In case you're wondering how my floor vents look since I skipped sanding off the rust earlier I painted them, hither's an ultra close-up.

You can see that the surface still has a bumpy texture.

Just honestly, who is gonna stare at my floor vents??

Now that they're spray-painted in oil-rubbed bronze, the vents lucifer the doorknobs in our home and blend in with the wood floors much better than before.

The whole point is for people tonon notice them. Including me.

Exercise y'all have onetime and rusty metal vent covers? At the very least, run them through the dishwasher to remove dust. And if you tin can spare a little time this weekend, give them a shot of spray pigment to brand them wait like new!