Weekend Project

[dreamshark]

Inspired by al fresco dining at Cafe Barbette, and to some extent by the decor of vgqn's backyard, Richard and I decided to paint our old groaty picnic tables, each board a different color. This color scheme naturally appealed to Richard, and handily makes use of the many half-empty cans of paint that every household acquires over the years.

It's more work than it seemed like it would be. It's hard to comprehend how many separate surfaces there are in the average picnic table. But we're about 2/3 done, and they're starting to look pretty nice. I wish I'd taken "before" pictures. These were some seriously grungy picnic tables. Not only have they sat outside in the rain and snow for 10 to 20 years, they've served as patient beasts of burden for Richard's endlessly messy backyard projects. When pieces rotted away or collapsed under the weight of stacks of broken concrete, we nailed on reinforcing pieces of wood. This kept them serviceable over the years, but didn't help the aesthetics. One picnic table completely lost its original substructure and was turned into a standard workbench with big thick legs made of 4x4s. But now they are both being transformed into cheerful, glossy, multi-colored patio furniture, along with a small round table and the one surviving bench.

The next step is to put in pavers so the lovely new patio furniture will have a patio to live on.

Comments

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

This sounds like a cool project! I'll look forward to seeing them.

[mmagidow.livejournal.com]

I love you guys! So many people would just "put it out by the trash" and go buy new ones. I can't wait to see the fresh paintjob. We finally found the perfect breakfast nook for our kitchen after much thinking and searching. We had to put it together, which, unfortunately, took all weekend, what with galacticvoyeur meticulously trimming several pieces to fit in our tiny kitchen, but it looks like it was meant to be there. Now I get to make new curtains/cushions/shades and when we are done it will look like we remodeled the kitchen. The whole project will cost less than $1000 if my figgering is right.