Some genius bolted gray metal shelving units in a classroom that I now have to teach in. The storage is great but the shelves look out of place and ugly. Since they are bolted to the walls I can't easily spray paint them. Any suggestions you have would be great.
Metal shelving should in most cases always be sprayed. If I were doing the job I would use drop cloths, a roll or two of painters plastic, painters tape and masking paper to cover everything that I didn't want paint on.
Once everything is covered, a paint sprayer would work best to spray the shelving.
If all of the above sounds a little overwhelming, you might try using a brush and roller along with some metal coating paint to paint the side rails (two or three coats) that hold up the shelves. After the rails are dry apply some complementary stick-on shelf paper (Mactak, Sticky-tack) to the shelves.
