Painting Things Black, Part 2

Our patio set is finally, finally done! We have been working on this for weeks and weeks, so we're excited that it's all over. The set is wrought iron and came from Adam's parents, who have had it for 20+ years. Adam, ironically, has painted it several times in his lifetime. It was quite rusty and all the paint was chipping off.

A close-up of the paint condition:



We sanded using many different tools (but most of all, our favorite Ryobi orbit sander). This took forever, it was messy, and our garage is still coated in dust. Then we primed with a primer made for rusty metal, and painted and painted. But it was totally worth it in the end for this!

And here's how it fits in with the rest of the backyard:

Basically, we enjoy painting things black.

Sunny Saturday!

So busy lately! We've been gone most weekends over the last month, but now we're finally home for a while so we're back to projects again full time :) Some of our recent trips include Brent's wedding in Boston, Memorial Day weekend at my parents' cabin in Hayward, Wis., and a Roscoe wedding reception. Whew!

The hot, humid weather is no fun for me, but is doing wonders for some of my plants out on the deck.

This morning, I finally finished up a project I started some time ago... last fall, actually. Adam and I didn't have nightstands, and I had been scouring craigslist for weeks for some cheap ones. I found two matching ones for $8 total, but unfortunately they looked like this:


They sat in the shed over the winter, and a couple of months ago I got them out and started sanding. They're not real wood (as you can probably tell from the photo) -- they are pressed wood or particle board or something that's basically glorified plywood. Not the type of thing you'd normally refinish. But, I just wanted something quick and cheap, so I decided to paint them black. Not surprisingly, the outer laminate layer basically fell right off:


Then I primed, painted, and replaced the handles with something nicer. It took longer than expected, but I really like the results:

Stay tuned for the final photos of the patio set I showed Adam working on in the last post--it'll be ready for the outdoors on Monday when the paint is set. It looks AMAZING compared to when we got it. Can't wait to sit outside in the nice weather and use it!