Painting Projects

I know, I know, I can hardly believe it, either, but I've actually got another couple of small painting projects on the go right now. One is the counter top and the other is an old Ikea "Lack" table.

I thought I'd be smart and go early to Rona this morning, with a stop at Starbucks at 7:10AM first, for a hit of a caffeine and sugar (short, non-fat chai and a piece of reduced fat banana chocolate chip loaf). I didn't have my paint chip with me, for the counter top, but knew it was a CIL colour and knew I'd recognize the name.

Huh.

Rona didn't have it. They carry CIL and that's where I thought I got the paint chip. But Home Depot also carries CIL and I realized I picked up the paint chip there, earlier in the spring when I went for paint for the stairs.

So I left Rona and walked over to Home Depot, not more than 35 minutes or so, with stops to take a few pics of wildflowers. Sure enough, I spotted the right colour immediately when I got to the store, so I left with a tinted quart and also a quart of interior/exterior primer that supposedly bonds to anything.

The "anything" I want it to bond to is an old "Lack" table, in a beech colour. It's a sofa table, actually, and I haven't seen any Lack sofa tables in the Ikea catalogue or on-line for the past few years or more. I assume they discontinued them. Not the brand, just the type of table. I really can't afford to replace my furniture--because remember, I'm determined to keep that credit card at a $0 balance--so I'm going to attempt to paint my old stuff instead. Some of it, anyway. I've already got two coats of primer on the table legs and table top, will see how that dries. I don't have paint for it yet, but I did bring home a handful of paint chips. I've eliminated all but one shade, so will get a quart of acrylic paint (water-based) in a week or two, and see how it goes. If this works, then I have a large mirror frame I want to do, and I might do the old Ikea entertainment centre. That is wood and though I tend to avoid painting real wood, I'm not up for re-staining it. I hate staining.

Oh, I also have the first coat of paint on the smaller, separate bit of counter that I have (there's not much counter space, believe me). Apparently you need to let it dry for 16 hours before recoating, so this will take me a few days. I'm sure I'll put at least three, if not four, coats of paint on it. Then, once that's dry, I'll move the stuff off the rest of the counter and do the remaining surface. The shade is a lighter green than the yellowy-sage I've had for five years (and not particularly liked), so it'll take more coats to cover over the existing darker colour anyway. I can't smell any of the paint of course, having lost my sense of smell several years ago, but I'm sure it must stink. That counter paint is melamine, oil-based. I have the ceiling fan in the living area going, as well as a table top fan. I don't want to make the cats sick. The only way I can tell that the fumes are affecting me is that my head feels woozy. Woozier than normal, at any rate. Heh.

Well, I'd better go see if the Lack table pieces are dry enough to bring inside...I did them outdoors, but we're due for a bit of rain this afternoon. Maybe I'm due for a nap too, if I'm lucky. Heck, if I stay downstairs, I'm more liable to pass out from the toxic fumes. LOL.