Let’s repaint the porch. Such an innocuous phrase. Just a Sunday afternoon job, you might think. Yep….. not here!
Seven days later and I must confess that he’s done all the stripping whilst I’ve been off working on client jobs and styling for ad campaigns and the like. One of us drew the short straw, cue image of me posing off to la-la-lady-builder-tv-land and him actually working:
As you can see, she’s a whopper and more pertinently, she’s a whopper who was covered in decades of paint, varnish, filler and gunk. Some of the timber tops were weather damaged and I do feel slightly guilty that we haven’t tackled this part of the house sooner, but we didn’t, so that’s that. Gaps are now filled in wood hardener, ready to be sanded, primed, undercoated and re-painted in top colour.
Using an electric heat gun – I bought a new Earlex one from B&Q & Mr M said it’s been great – he meticulously pared back all the layers to reveal the wood below.
It’s amazing how much depth and detail is lost with layers upon layers of paint. Sharp corners become lost and long crisp edges look almost rounded. It’s much the same on old ornate skirting boards or deliciously detailed coving, everything disappears under consecutive decor choices. It’s so worth it to scrape it all back, but I would say that wouldn’t I, seeing as how he did it all and is now suffered the aching arms and cricked neck 😉
Suddenly our porch has started to look like a church, with its gothic arches and tall pillars – all very revival arts & crafts and typical for the period it was built. I’m not a very artsy craftsy designer, so I’m going to have to think carefully about the colours and finished restoration so they reflect my interior style but also the classic craft of the porch itself. Thinking cap on.
These detailed edges are going to take some work. Things like this are why my blog posting sometimes gets less frequent…
Hasn’t he done a good job so far? Gotta give him that even though we’re rowing like mad at the moment, stressed out with living in squalor for a year now and it’s taking its self-builder toll. Any of you who have done this scale of refurb and lived in it will know exactly what I mean!!
Tonnes to do and we better get cracking cause someone told me Winter Is Coming?
Hi, I missed this one when it was posted. You have probably already painted it, but if you are waiting for spring then there is another option when it comes to paint. The traditional linseed-oil paint is so thin, and weathers to a powder, so that the porch would never be covred up like that again. Modern water or oli-based paints are easy fixes but they will inevitably build up over time, and will cover any potential rots. Working with linseed gives life to old wood, can be brand new with a little re-oiling and comes in historic colors. Worth looking at now you have gone through the trouble of stripping and sanding. http://ottossonfarg.com/webshop-6/ottossons-linoljefarg/linoljefarg-utomhus/
Thanks Louise for that suggestion. We haven’t painted yet so I’ll definitely look up that option 🙂