A Little Obsession With Painting

It's been four days since Monday and another three days until the next Monday and yet I'm choosing today to participate in Joanne's Make it New Monday.  This month she talked  about giving up on perfectionism so perhaps waiting to join her link-up on Friday is my nod to that!

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This summer I've had a little fascination with paint.  Like, if it has a neutral surface, it better look out!

It all started with my kids' wooden picnic table that we keep on our back deck.  Maddie received it as a gift years ago, back when we lived in a town house and had only three kids.  The spring  we moved, three years ago, I painted it white, but the table had seen better days. 

Then our dog used it as a chew toy when he was a puppy and we considered throwing it away, but the kids still enjoy sharing a snack around the table so I decided to give it a makeover.

I asked Brian to replace the wood on the benches and then I got to work with my paintbrush.  I bought a pale aqua paint to do the base of the table and then I brushed leftover chalkboard paint (from another project) on the top to make it part-snack table, part-art table.

Is it perfect!  Absolutely not.  If you look closely, you can see where, despite painter's tape, the black paint smudged into the aqua paint.  Plus the animals have already started chipping away some of the paint near the bottom of the legs. 

It's a lot prettier, though, and the kids love it!

Next my eyes turned to a wreath on my living room wall.  It was one of those things that hung there so long I didn't notice it anymore.  It had red berries and looked pretty at Christmas, but wasn't really a color I love or wanted to use in my house.

I considered giving it away and I considered putting it away until Christmas, but on a whim I bought a can of spray paint.  

The wreath didn't take the whole can of paint, though, so I started hunting for another surface.  I've always thought our plain-Jane folding chairs were a little boring.  We keep them in a closet and bring them out for extra seating at parties, but they certainly aren't homey.

A can-and-a-half of spray paint later, they still are not kind to the behind, but at least my folding chairs are cuter.

Speaking of chairs, I went to a yard sale a few weeks ago of a couple who was selling the entire contents of their house.  By the time I arrived, most of the furniture was gone and what remained was a little overpriced.  I sifted through the contents of the garage, though, and purchased a $2 chair that was dirty and had paint splattered on the seat. 

I brought it home and gave it a good douse with the hose.  With a combination of soap and water, a Mr. Clean Eraser, and a bit of elbow grease, I removed the stray paint drops from most of the chair.  Then I spent several morning hours priming (1 coat), painting (2 coats), and staining (2 coats) the seat of the chair.

The best part? The primer was left over from a long-ago project  and the paint was left over from the kids' picnic table! 

This beauty now has a place in our living room in front of our built-in bookcases. The kids think it doubles as a kitchen stool.

Next up in my painting line-up?  An end table I bought for $5 that wants to make its home in our dining room...or maybe the wrought iron basket I found in our shed last weekend...