Before and After

We recently bought some low priced, unfinished wood furniture for our front porch.  I really wanted to paint them a fun color, but I was really concerned that they needed to match the house.  I even considered just staining the wood.  But, deep down inside, I really wanted bright and fun.  I searched all over Pinterest and I kept coming back to pictures of brightly painted, mismatched furniture.  I found that those pictures made me smile and that was exactly what I wanted for my front porch.  So, I set aside my propensity to want things to match and be perfect, and decided to do fun, warm and welcoming.



It turns out I have a friend of a friend that works at a paint store.  We went in and stared at paint chips and stared and discussed and stared and discussed.  Shad asked the guy if they had any paint chips that were just regular colors.  They guy stared at him like he was speaking another language.  I explained to Shad that people don’t want blue, red and yellow, they want colors with names that make them feel the color.  He stared at me like I was speaking another language.  We finally decided on the colors that were being displayed in the front of the store: Andes Sky (blue), Endless Possibilities (red), Wind Star (purple) and Orange You Happy? (orange).

 



Shad is so good at setting up a project.

 

I am always naïve about the enormity of a project.  That is why I normally choose not to even start one.  I don’t know how many times I told Shad that I didn’t expect this to be such a huge project.  His answer was always, “I did.”  I was pretty surprised how helpful the girls were, though.  Hannah pretty much painted the whole table herself and Bethany knocked out the ottoman!  Shad and I merely had to touch them up a bit (i.e.: sand off the drip marks and newspaper that stuck to the feet and pretty much repaint each piece.)  Josh even helped paint when he wasn’t working on his The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe diorama for school.
 



 



After four days of sanding, priming (2 coats), painting (2-3 coats) and touch ups, I was so excited to place my happy furniture on the front porch.  Just looking at it makes me smile.  I will call this spot: My Happy Place.