Miscellaneous Goodness
On Painting Shutters
I first tried satin black spray paint, but I was having a lot of trouble getting an even sheen on the shutters, especially on the slats (which are tricky to paint...do you go sideways? up and down? both? I tried it all! If you have non-slatted shutters, you are so lucky.)
So, I switched to flat black spray paint and that was much, much easier to work with.
I know a flat sheen isn't that great for cleaning purposes, but considering I didn't clean our shutters for the previous 11 years, I'm not thinking this will be a huge problem.
And besides, they're black. I don't think they're going to look that dirty.
A lot of shutters are secured with plastic rivets, but ours were just screwed in with regular screws. They were old and rusted, so I bought some new ones and spray painted them black.
I read two memoirs this week.
Actually, I read them in half a week, because I finished the second one yesterday.
I don't normally get through books quite that fast, but I had two kid doctor appointments to wait through, one car appointment, and I also babysat for friends (which meant I had some quiet reading time after I put their kids into bed.)
Growing Up Amish is the life story of a guy who eventually left the Amish community. His leave/come back/leave/come back story almost reminded me of how hard it is to leave a cult, although I'd never thought of the Amish quite in that light before.
Unremarried Widow is the memoir of an Army wife whose husband died in Iraq just four months after they'd gotten married. I expected it to be sad, certainly (and it was! I wanted to sob after reading it!), but it was also beautiful and candid and I didn't want it to end.
We bought a Luxi mattress.
I think I mentioned a few weeks back that we were mulling over some different mattress options. We've decided to give the Luxi (not an affiliate link) a try, and we just ordered it last night.
Once we get it and try it out, I'll let you guys know what we think.
Hopefully we'll love it, but if not, there's a great return policy. So, this feels like a pretty risk-free adventure.
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And that's the last of my miscellany for today. See you tomorrow for a menu plan/grocery post!
Kristen, when spray painting anything black, we always use a flat black spray paint first. It makes a huge difference in coverage. Even the cheap 1.00 a can spray paint looks great!
I usually use a flat gray primer when I'm going to paint something black...but I tried that here, and was still having sheen issues.
So true that primer can make cheap paint work pretty well!
I love the title of your post, Kristen!
As I get older, I'm enjoying biographies more. I have The Hiding Place, a biography of Corrie ten Boom, on hold at the library. My number in the queue is moving up really slowly, but that's okay!
Mmm, that's a good one. I think you'll enjoy it.
The Hiding Place is one of my favorite books! I have read it several times. It may be worth looking for it used and having it to read again!
The only painting project I have is a wheel barrow that is quite rusty. I've been putting it off because A) I don't use it all that much and B) I really, really hate sanding.
I might do some chalkboard paint projects (I already did my spice jar project by painting the lids of baby food jars, though I may do a few more as spares for more spices I get.) but that's about it.
Ooh, I'm loving all the personal/home improvements!
We're closing on a home (fingers crossed!) September 8, so I'm sure many home improvement projects are a'comin'. We were also thinking about upgrading to a king mattress. Our bed squeaks something awful, so it would be nice to have something bigger and quieter.
I just re-read The Hiding Place. Kristen's right, it is so good.
We ate out last night, which wasn't frugal, but a dear friend we hadn't seen in a long time was here in town briefly and called asking us to come eat. Friend was already at the restaurant, so off we went, too. It's good to know we had the money to pay for it. It wasn't always so!
I wish we could afford real shutters for our house. They would sure be nice in hurricane season. But: we have several openings with windows stacked three wide, some that are two windows wide and lots of single windows, many of them six feet high. Even fixed shutters would run us more than we feel like we can do at this time. I think Kristen did a nice job on hers.
I need to dry some herbs and my husband needs to dry his hot peppers in our one dehydrator. Hot peppers are not compatible with herbs -- the hot peppers flavor everything, and these peppers are the super hots. Since the humidity is 85% this morning, we'll just have to take turns using the dehydrator. All I'll get from hanging up herbs is moldy herbs.
Adding Growing Up Amish to my reading list. Looks like a fascinating read!
Your comment about not cleaning the shutters for 11 years cracked me up...because we just moved from our house which we lived at for 11 years and well, there were things that I thought, "hmmm, should have cleaned that sometime in the last 11 years".
Thanks for the boor recommendations. I just put them both on hold.
I guess it depends on what one uses to clarify "cult", but I definitely think the Amish are very cultish. In recent years different authors have romanticized the Amish lifestyle, but it is not an easy religion/group to belong to!
From what I see on your shutters, they look good. I just got through spray painting some frames last week with black satin paint. I expected to have issues with heat and humidity here, but they did really well. Today I am using that same can of paint to freshen up a magazine basket and a desk tray. I never thought to prime...oh well...I'm going to check out those books. I am reading After the War is Over and it's dragggging. I read a lot, but not many biographies and yours sound interesting.
I was watching the weather app like a hawk, trying to find a time when the heat was below 90 and the humidity was 60% or below. It was tough to find a good time to spray paint.
I feel like spring and fall are probably wiser times to take on a project like this, but darn it, summer is when I have the free hours to do it. Oh well.
Sorry to say, Kristen, but the poor paint pattern in the top picture is due to bad technique. It's pretty evident you were holding the nozzle down while continually moving up and down. When you do that, you're pausing and turning at each end, building up the paint during each turn. As with doing a moving shot in photography, you need to pan/click/follow-through. Additionally, you should have done the slats sideways first, then the outer edges parallel with their major portions. I've painted large furniture with a spray can, and a semi-pro painter actually thought a metal file cabinet I did had been done by an auto body shop!
You need to move like so: start moving, start spraying, stop spraying, stop moving. Let's go by this code:
# = start/stop
* = spray
- = move
@ = turn
You were doing: #****@****@****#
You need to do: #--****--@--****--@--****--#
Never spray while stopped.
Hope this helps!
- Shawn
On some other shutters, I did do the slats sideways first like you were saying (start off the shutter, spray onto the shutter, don't stop spraying until you're off the shutter on the other side), but the problem is that you still get more paint on the side part by the slats than you do on the rest of the shutter.
I don't know if I'm making sense...I do understand the technique you're talking about, and it's what I use when I spray-prime furniture, but even when I tried that on the shutters, I was still getting sheen issues.
(The pictured one IS the fault of technique, though.)
OK, glad you understand where I'm coming from!
You can stop spraying before you're off the shutter, though -- just stop spraying where your "area of interest" is. So, when spraying the slats, stop the spray (but continue the panning) at the end of the slat. It's all in the motion.
Of course, distance and time between coats will affect sheen.
I guess I'm more particular and also do more spray-painting than other folks. 😛
Can't wait to see what you think about the the mattress. Need a new one, my back kills me every morning!
We're anxious to see too! Hopefully it'll arrive in short order.