These shoes have been tucked away in my closet ever since I brought them home. Every once in a while, I would try them on and admire them, decide that they I still probably didn't have anything to wear them with, and back into the closet they would go.
Recently, Goth Gardener posted about a pair of shoes that she bought under similar circumstances. Her solution was to use paint to make the shoes into something that was a better fit with her personality and her wardrobe ... and now you see where I'm going with the DIY portion of this post.
No turning back now.
I used regular black acrylic craft paint and a small angled paint brush, working carefully so I didn't get paint on the rope-covered wedge part of the shoe, and thinning the paint slightly so it flowed into the grain of the fabric.
Halfway finished ... One down, one more to go.
When the paint was dry, I buffed it off of the zipper with an old toothbrush.
... and here is the finished product. All it took was a bit of paint (that I already had) and some time (while I was hiding in the a/c because it was too hot outside to work) and I now have a pair of shoes that are perfectly ME.
Before: Cute clearance-sale impulse-purchase shoes, good for a nice spring outfit, but not exactly my style.
After: Black shoes, totally my style, with that fantastic funky gold zipper, that I probably would have bought even if they had been full price.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I must admit that I still haven't worn these yet. Now that they're black, and I love them more than I dare to admit, I imagine that they will come out of the closet and into regular rotation in my wardrobe very soon.