Painting Benches

My gorgeous hubby and I have a couple of benches. Garden benches. He brought me one for my wedding present (5 years: wood), to which he kept nagging at me that the wood needed protecting, to make them last longer. That was my job. That is a very long time ago!

In April of 2016 we were enjoying some fine sunny days in the North of England I decided this would be a good idea to sand down the bench. Thinking it would be an hour job... three hours later I was still at it! I always like to do a thorough job. And blimey, that bench was smooth.

It was a glorious sunny afternoon and I sandpaper'ed it all. There were a few (a lot of) choice words: I really got fed up, because I didnt expect it to take so long! I had a few cups of tea to keep me going, and with the patio doors open I listened to Radio 2 blasting out from the television. But, oh my goodness, how fiddly! Getting in between the slats was tight, and my hand ached. It was hard work. Plus, its not all that comfortable to do.

 I got out the tin and with a paint brush I started painting. Gorgeous hubby had located an old sheet to put on the cobbles so they didn't get splattered with paint. I had on some old clothes, so I set too with the painting.

I stared in disbelief as the paint went on purple. Purple! Seriously! Wow! I know I like purple, but I didn't really want that colour on my benches. I was a little taken aback. Thankfully, though,  it dried brown, "Deep mahogany", just what it said on the tin! Phew! The decision had to be made as to how to paint the underneath. Do I wait for it to completely dry and turn it over? Do I go underneath like mechanics do with cars? I opted to go underneath as I do like to fully complete a task! No matter what the task is! Gorgeous hubby located me some goggles to protect my eyes and I set to, to complete my paint job. Again, it was a laborious task to complete. It's quite hard to get inbetween the slats. At least I could tell what part had been done, so there was no "you've missed a spot" with my painting! With the wind blowing and I knew it was going to be dry for the next 24 hours (clever me, I checked the weather forecast) to complete the drying process. The tin does say "quick drying", but it is always best to go with a complete dry work. 

I finally finished my work and stood back to admire.

Now, the last part of the drying process was to watch that the cat didn't get her paws on it. Disastrous if she were to bring those painted paws into the house. She does like to lounge around on the bench to soak up the sun. We watched her like a hawk!

Finished, read the tin... 3 to 4 coats! Oh no, not again!