I’ve been wanting to paint our blonde oak dining room chairs for a while now.
Dining room captain’s chair
I got a good start recently and I have a glimpse of one to show.
Close-up of dogwood stencil
Before and after.
Charcoal chair with a dogwood flower
Still needs some touch up and wax but at least there’s progress.
Chairs are tedious to paint.
Do you hold on to projects for a long time?
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Posted in Before and After, Color, DIY, Paint
I made myself a list of projects and plans to work on at the beginning of the month and frankly have made very little progress. Today I’m kicking myself in the pants to stay on task and get something done. (Oh, I’ve been doing things but they weren’t on the list to begin with.)
#8 I’m singling out painting dining room chairs since Charlie finished sanding them (which is the part I really hate to do).
These oak chairs have been sanded and wiped down with mineral spirits.
# 9. Work on my personal wardrobe – try on, make a list, weed out. This item is at least started.
#10. Buy √motor oil, √ grey spray primer, √clear resin, √ navy spray paint and √ gym shoes. I totally knocked out this item which consisted of a variety of purchases.
New gym shoes
So, numbers 1 through 7 on the original list are still in the planning stage while 8, 9 and 10 have a real shot at completion.
We have also planned a local outing for today on which I’ll report.
Have you ever finished a to-do list? How?
Posted in Art, DIY, Entertaining, Favorite Things, Paint
You saw back here that we use old windows (which we bought at a yard sale for a song) to cover newly seeded garden squares to help maintain heat and moisture in the early spring weather.
2 casement windows cover a 4 foot by 4 foot square.
These windows were themselves becoming weathered. The paint was chipping off and the glazing putty was hard and cracking apart.
The paint was cracking off at an alarming rate.
I thought I should scrape them and paint them so they would hold up for years to come.
These well-worn windows were not difficult to scrape.
After scraping much of the paint off I primed the mostly bare wood with Zinsser indoor/outdoor primer.
Primed with exterior primer
Then I used all my green acrylic paint to tint some old white paint. Honestly I did not add any blue but the color sort of came out aqua. I guess the reflection from the sky blued it up a little.
I wasn’t going for this pale Martha color. I wanted something bolder.
As a topcoat I used Benjamin Moore’s Bunker Hill Green in an exterior low lustre soft gloss which I had decided on as a garden color here.
The newly minted Glade Garden Green.
Painting windows is a time consuming job because of the various surfaces.
A newly-painted window set in place.
At this time I’m only painting the “out-sides” with the top coat color. The bottoms are getting white primer. After I reputty ALL the window panes perhaps I’ll finish with some green.
Can you spot it? Not nearly as garish as you might have thought.
Very Versaillish, n’est-ce pas?
Have you made a bold color statement? Or are you a lover of pastel shades?
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I told you here we were planning to use the fence from our demolished porch as the entrance to the potager.
We have a good expanse of old iron fence to use at the kitchen garden entrance.
First Charlie derusted it with wire brushes on an electric drill.
We have a variety of drill attachments to clean metal.
Then I gave it a coat of Rust Reformer by Rustoleum.
The rusty iron fence before and then derusted and sprayed with Rust Reformer.
The Rust Reformer goes on matte black.
The rust inhibitor was sprayed over the derusted fence.
After that 2 coats of Rustoleum Gloss Protective Enamel in Navy.
Ultimately I decided to paint the fence gloss navy blue.
I really love how it’s turning out.
Do you reuse things? Like what?
I told here I wanted to use the iron fence and gate from our demolished porch to accent the entrance to the potager.
This little section was easy to temporarily “install” for effect.
It needs heavy cleaning because it’s in sorry condition with rust and peeling paint.
It just looks so French, n’est-ce pas?
In addition to derusting the whole thing and scraping off the chippy paint I must decide what color it should be.
Removing rust with a wire wheel on an electric drill.
I could go with the original black. Nah!
The black is an undercoat that deters the formation of rust. We’ll see.
The other features in the yard are either metallic charcoal or blue.
Blue park bench with charcoal metallic ironwork.
Our Wee Little House is grey with a blue door.
The garden fence should harmonize with the wee little house.
So while I’m Charlie is scraping and wire brushing like mad maybe the readers would like to weigh in on their preference.
Charcoal Metallic or Glossy Navy? Hmmmm.
Do you stick to your palette or go off on a colorful spree?
Posted in Demolition, DIY, Garden, Paint
I made myself a little list of projects and plans to work on this weekend. I’ve been slacking off (a lot) lately but the weather is supposed to be reasonable (above fifty and partly sunny) and I feel energized.
Bentwood oak chairs for the dining room need to be sanded so I can paint them.
That should keep me and a host of minions busy. Unfortunately I have no minions. Oh, Charlie, would you be my do-minion for a weekend?
Have you got plans?
Posted in 101 in 1001, DIY, Entertaining, Favorite Things, Paint
Once upon a time The Glade was fenced in.
Fence parallels the street.
After some half-hearted attempts at replacing the fence and the toppling of a huge oak tree, only a few pieces of fence remain.
A fenced corner.
I am disinclined to take down these last pieces of fence because the historical commission would need to get into the act if the fence were totally gone and I did want to replace it.
A section of fence divides our yard from the neighbor’s woods.
At this time however I think the sections of fence should be painted.
A white fence looks stately with green plants.
White Fence link
The obvious color would be white.
But maybe I should try something a little more daring, like green.
Naturally weathered fence turns grey.
Or maybe grey.
I do love blue.
Blue?
Painting a fence seems like a nice job for a warm spring day.
What are your warm-day-in-spring plans?
We have a really convenient laundry room. It’s on the second floor of the house where the bedrooms are also located. In the laundry room is an ironing board.
Ironing Board – Up Position
Not just a an ironing board but one that stores in the wall when not in use.
Ironing Board – Behind Closed Door
The door and trim are oak and therefore needed to be painted.
The door and trim have been painted white.
I decided to paint it white like the beadboard and future trim.
The black spot below and to the left of the ironing board is an outlet that has recessed itself into the wall. Ugh!
One more item on the list completed. Tomorrow we’ll fix the hole in the wall.
Are things getting finished at your house?
Posted in Before and After, DIY, Laundry Room, Paint
I have wanted Charlie to build me a couple of planter boxes for either side of the potager.
The boxwood would look nice in square wooden planters.
I was inspired by all the planters at Versailles.
Notice all the potted plants including boxwood.
I don’t need anything quite as grand and sturdy as these wood and iron planters.
I’d name the planter color “Versailles Green,” n’est-ce pas?
I did want to paint them the color of the planters at Versailles. I thought I could just Google “Versailles planter green” and up it would come. But, No.
There were a few different green shades painted at Versailles.
So I whipped up some colors in the Paint program that were in the correct grey-green range.
Red 95 Hue 81
Green 145 Saturation 60
Blue 90 Luminance 118
Then I hopped over the Benjamin Moore’s website and found a color I think is a pretty good shade: Bunker Hill Green. (The universal color number is 5b8f5f.)
Here’s the internet swatch of Bunker Hill Green.
I can’t wait to buy a quart and give it a go. And I’m not afraid of tampering with paint colors so if it’s too green or too dark I’m pretty sure I can fix it but I won’t know until THE PLANTERS ARE BUILT (hint, hint) and I give them a coat of Bunker Hill Green.
Maybe I should have written the planter inspiration post BEFORE I picked the color. Nah.
Do you have all your ducks in a row? Meaning do you do things in the proper order?
I had lots of plans for Saturday from a list here and here. It was supposed to rain all day but, once again, the weatherman was WRONG. First thing in the morning I headed up to the attic to look for a few things and at the same time emptied a box of old stuff. I decided recently that I’m going to stop saying I’m decluttering and start calling everything in that vein “ORGANIZING”.
College notebooks
Our ride-on mower still does not run and probably needs a new battery. On the other hand the log splitter which was acting up is working fine now. The remedy seemed to be draining the hydraulic oil and replacing it with new. Charlie has refilled the woodshed.
The log splitter is back in action.
I finished working on this old window.
The layers of paint on this old window are delicious.
I didn’t get to clean and decorate the living room yet but I did some straightening in the Wee Little House (our shed).
A new pegboard project in the Wee Little House.
Charlie started taking the rust off our potager fence.
Removing rust with a wire wheel on an electric drill.
I didn’t finish my Easter signs but I did paint the ironing board in the laundry room.
One more coat of paint and the in-wall ironing board will be finished.
So we didn’t finish many projects but we did get a good start.
What have you started? Better yet, what did you finish?
Posted in DIY, Garden, Laundry Room, Paint, Shed
