The Perfect Silver

Searching for the perfect paint color is never easy, and spray paint is no exception.
I absolutely LOVE the side-by-side comparison that was done on the blog "ChrislovesJulia.com". It was perfect and exactly what I was looking for with just one little, tiny problem... they were comparing gold paint, and I needed silver!

More specifically, I am looking for a brushed silver/nickel spray paint. With the typical 90's shiny brass filling our house, I want to refinish light fixtures, frames, and anything else my little heart desires. We picked brushed nickel over oil rubbed bronze for a more contemporary feel.

For this experiment, I tried to focus on the "brushed" silver finishes. Please note there is a plethora of chrome, mirror, and polished silver spray paints but I am looking for a less reflective finish... but I had a "chrome" spray paint already in my collection, so I threw it in for comparison!

Using two large cardboard boxes and a plastic painting tarp, I set up my very own spray booth in the basement. More often than not, it is either too cold, windy, or rainy to spray paint outside. With a safe, enclosed space inside, now I can update odds and ends whenever I get a chance!

The victim today: paper mache Easter eggs. I found these for $2 in the craft section. They aren't as smooth as I would have hoped, but I think they will serve my purpose. (I totally forgot to take a "before" photo, but to the right is what they looked like.)


First I strung them up and primed them all the same gray.
Then I sprayed them individually, each with a different color of silver paint. The trickiest part is making sure you remember which egg goes with which paint


I know it is difficult to compare them just from the photographs. Starting from the left, the first is just the primed egg, then the chrome egg, then the three "brushed" silver eggs.
The middle one had a blue undertone, and a bit more reflective like the chrome one.
The fourth egg is the most matte of them all. It just seemed to have a little less depth.


The one all the way to the right seemed to be the closest to a "true" silver with just the right of reflective depth, but still brushed metal not polished.


I was surprised how "true" each of the colors matched to the paint can lids!
The consensus between DH and myself (and a couple other people I asked) was that the egg on the far right was the winner: Rust-oleum Universal Metallic in Satin Nickle.


Now I can start spraying everything in the house silver!
What is your favorite?