More adventures in painting

My ed-u-mication in spray painting continues....

I loved the way the early attempts at trims turned out, learned a lot doing doors and bifolds

Time to step it up a notch and try something outside my comfort zone.... we're spraying furniture this week

The big concern all along has been, that using an HVLP system with latex paint the paint has to be thinned out to the point where drips are a definite problem and my mortal enemy (see my adventures with the bifolds!), and the coats must be very thin - anything too wet and the paint will separate before it dries. However the colour separation can be useful in giving you a nice natural looking subtle shadings in the colour which in an antique look can be quite good - if it's not too much.

Armed with that, a plan and with 2 backup plans in hand I took on the challenge.


The medicine chest was coming along - but dripping was still problematic.
A lack of adequate space to lay our everything flat was going to mean tackling the medicine chest and the vanity separately. Still I was laying down 2-3 coats a day, by the beginning of Wednesday morning I was starting to fear that I was just painting for the sake of resanding it and painting it again and wasn't really getting anywhere. However, I gave it another day (and 3 coats) and a new plan and flat space to lay the doors and shelves out on, and the cabinet flat on it's back.


And lo - there was much improvement.
Thursday we turned everything over and sprayed the other side. Between each coat was the frustration of little marks and mars and glitches I wasn't really happy with and more sanding. However, I was seeing enough improvement, and with the change in methodology was improving things - so I stuck it out.


I'm not 100% happy with the results, but I'd call it a decent amateur job. I wouldn't call it a professional finish. On the other hand I've paid professionals to do a job (flooring actually) for a professional finish in the past and not gotten what I consider a professional finish. I'm an awfully picky b**ch, thankfully so is my hubby. There's still a couple little brush touch ups to do later, but it's done - and I can live with it.



Before and After

Now I'm working the vanity today - and that's being even trickier, and I'm still not convinced it'll work. Despite the sanding, it isn't adhering as well as I'd like. With the dark wood colour I probably should have primed it first. (The medicine chest was raw wood, and thus had to primed before hand). I'm also really beginning to wonder whether an HVLP system is the best type for this sort of work, that perhaps an airless spray system wouldn't require as much paint thinning, and thus give a better result. I'll maybe pick up the cheap $35 one see the difference in the technigue and results before I outlay $700 on a professional system, but at this juncture I figure I'm definitely looking at a professional rig - not just for furniture and trims but for WHOLE WALLS! once we move and start doing a whole house of painting again (not to mention the cottages).

Musings....

Ya know, what we really need is a 'DIY" TV series of our own...

With the huge proliferation of DIY shows and interest and networks on the cable dial these days, I'm not sure there's really enough Canadian content.

I mean really - we have Bryan Baeumler, Mike Holmes, Sarah Richardson and Ambrose Pryce, there's a few others - Income Properties, Marriage Under Construction, but we've also lost Jim Caruk (now doing his wonderful BIY Workshops), Colin and Justin have got their hands full in a 100 new and exciting projects, and Family Renovation kinda finished up after only one family. So amid a small handful of new shows by already known presenters there's a ton of reruns, and American content (both old and new).

I think we need new Canadian content.
Intelligent content, less about fools and their follies, or experts, but just real, everyday people, doing what most real everyday people do - real projects, real problems, dealt with in real ways. Or maybe that doesn't make good TV.

Of course most real people also don't sell up their executive home to move further out into the wilds to build a sustainable lifestyle and create an over the top artist retreat EITHER.

And ya know, the show would have a little bit of everything.
Money and downsizing in a touch economy
Renovating and decorating for resale
Selling a house
Buying a house/property (out of province no less!)
Next season we could cover the working on the new house, building the barns and cottages

Just to mix it up - we could do guest spots - all those well known and well loved faces? We'd invite them in, Sarah can come do a room, we'll give Colin and Justin one whole cottage to make over, Bryan can come help sort out the kitchen electrical (heck he's looking for new projects to film), and Mike can show you how to build a PROPER country fence that'll actually keep the dogs in. I figure we can get at least 2 maybe three episodes outta James and I flying off to Toronto to do Jim Caruk's BIY Bootcamp. Scott McGillivray can advise on what one best needs to get out of the cottages to make money on em...

Yeah it's a hell of a brief I tell ya...
Brilliance - pure brilliance.

Too bad I don't know any TV production companies I could sell the idea to.
Guess I go back to hoping one day this blog might pick up a sponsor or two.