Phase 2 of Pool Updates

I finished up a project earlier this week that I was expecting to be a lot more intensive than it turned out to be. About two hours of thorough scrubbing and two or three of application took the pool from this...

To this. 

Go ahead and focus just on the formerly pink coping around the edge. Wait, I conveniently have a closeup for you, in case you forgot its pink awfulness. 

A few weeks ago, I was at Home Depot browsing around the paint section and had this brainstorm: what if we stained the coping? We'd talked about redoing it, but it was going to be too expensive with the other little pool plumbing update we'd decided to do at the advice of the resurfacing company.

So I launched into researching Behr Semi-Transparent Concrete Stain.  Lot of super mixed reviews, but people mostly loved it or hated it, which told me some people did kind of a crappy job prepping or selected a surface that wasn't a good fit and thus hated the result, and some people did a good job prepping and picked a good surface and liked it.

I was pretty sure our very rough, very weathered and very porous coping was a good candidate. The "water drip" test confirmed the surface was open (the dripped water absorbed immediately). I figured that literally anything would be better than the pink, crossed my fingers it wouldn't flake off in three months leaving me with a huge mess and went for it. Here's my review of Behr's concrete stain, at least so far.

Before on the left, after application on the right in the photo below.

After some discussion, we ended up selecting Sunbaked Clay as the stain color. I tried that the day before and wasn't thrilled with the color, since it came out warmer and pinker than I was hoping. You can actually see a tiny bit of it in the image above, on the bottom right corner of the pink block. It's warmer than the end result. I took the can back and asked them to add some gray or green to dull the color and cool it off, which had very satisfactory results.

Lemme tell you, it was pretty fun very carefully working my way around the deep end hovering above that swamp. I'm glad those boards were nice wide 2x12s, which were left from the tile job.

You can see that the stain didn't absorb immediately all over. I think this is at least in part due to the inconsistent weathering of the coping blocks, the original surface of which was mostly long gone but inconsistently worn. I also opted to use a throwaway chip brush to paint instead of rolling; the roller felt like it was applying too much product and seemed like more trouble than it was worth. I had to cut around the edge of the tile grout anyway so the brush was more efficient.

But by the time it dried (left, vs. just-applied on the right) it had soaked in very well and the color dried down some. The texture was just like it was before I stained: pretty rough and not slippery or finished-feeling. I like how the texture of the material comes through. It's exactly what I was hoping for when I went with the semi-transparent over the transparent stain.

This is a spot where the stain took inconsistently. I think for some reason the old original finish of the coping was left around the crack and in those pink speckles on the right and bottom of the image below. Hardly any of the coping had that smoother texture, and given that I have no reason to believe the coping was ever replaced in the 50-some years the pool's been here, I think it just wore off years ago.

 Again, more inconsistent absorption.

 On the whole, I'm pretty happy with this. It was $25 for the gallon, which I used about half of. Even if I had to redo this annually, I would still be satisfied. We'll see how it wears for the summer, with some traffic and water and chlorine and lots of sunshine.

A lot of the reviews I read commented that it wasn't stain, it was super thin paint. My opinion is that I might call it paint if I were applying it to a less-porous surface; I can see how it would sit on top and not sink in. But given how rough my surface was and how readily it sucked in anything liquid, it sure acted like a stain to me. It's latex/acrylic, not oil, so it's different than a wood stain, but I still think it acted more stain-like than paint-like.

I'll report back again (hopefully next year at the earliest) on how it's wearing. I'm optimistic for a good summer on it, but we'll see.

The Office, Pretty Much Done (!!!!)

This day, like every other "it's finished" day, has been a looong time coming. Not only is pretty much everything on my March sabbatical list for the office checked off, but I did a few bonus projects too. (Out of school for eight years, still looking for extra credit.) 

First, the picture ledge. I've wanted something above my desk since we move back two years ago, and I batted around all sorts of ideas. I have this great original piece I got from One Kings Lane three years ago and have yet to frame. It's on top of the crates on the shelf on my desk, where I've been trying to protect it from getting bent or scraped up. It's kind of big though, and I felt like if I did a gallery setup (another idea) that it'd overwhelm the whole thing. It's a fairly large space, but not huge, and just to the right of the lamp will be filled in once I get a monitor. My computer sits on top of the crate in the middle. So I scrapped the gallery and the single piece.

Then I happened upon someone talking about a ledge out in the blogosphere and thought, I could TOTALLY build one of those in like two seconds. More like 30 minutes including finishing time and an hour to install because I was tired and stupid (always a great time to start drilling holes into your wallpapered wall...) but luckily Todd came to the rescue with a great suggestion on how to hang it and saved my wall from many unnecessary holes.

Plus I have a bunch of already-framed art that needed a home. That's not counting the lighthouse watercolor all the way on the right, painted by my talented late grandmother, that I haven't yet put in a frame. Nice associations with each one, all gifts and things that make me happy to look at. Perfect for right above my desk where I spent a decent about of time looking.

I also moved this seashell print so it's centered above the cabinet. Its previous position was a foot or so left, which was where it lived when the room was configured differently. It took me about 3 minutes to move it, and it'd been bugging me for months. I have no idea why I drag my feet on easy fixes like that.

Side note, maidenhair ferns really need even indirect light. I had the one in the terra cotta pot on a shelf on my desk where it got light from the window and the back door, and it grew into this really demented-looking shape, half of the stems pointed at the window, the other half at the door. Hopefully I can rehab its shape.

The fern on the left is a type of Boston fern, which I've heard are rather notoriously fussy plants. This fluffy version is awesome. When it needs water, it just turns a lighter shade of green looks a bit pathetic, and then I stick it in the tub and give it a good soaking. I got it as a teeny start four or more years ago (an indication of its hardiness, since I have for sure killed more ferns than I've kept alive) and now it's almost two feet wide with no signs of slowing down. If I put it in a bigger pot, it might take over the whole room. The dimension of it doesn't really come through on camera, but it's so wild and textured, I love it.

 So, here's my office. I'm calling this one done for now, though I'll probably never stop tinkering.

Lastly, in honor of Easter Sunday, a line from my favorite Khaled Hosseini book, The Kite Runner: Come, there is a way to be good again. Hope this and all of your other days is filled with the spirit of redemption.

Master Bedroom Plans and Schemes

The master bedroom has never been a done deal. The color offsets the general lack of thought that's gone into this room, but other than the headboard and curtains, I haven't made much headway. Not for lack of trying, but until a couple of weeks ago, my creativity was kind of stuck. I finally got unstuck though and started working on this board.

Unstuck feels much better than stuck. Here's the plan:

• Art. What I have over the bed is actually a single piece I PhotoChopped as I was playing around; it's from Laura Dro Designs and is part of a collection of amazing ikat pieces. I love her work and have been trying to figure out where one of her prints might belong in the house.
• I've already painted the pineapple lamps (I took pictures but they seem to have vanished...which is always rather unsettling). Next, figure out lampshade situation. NO ivory.
• Gonna hack some Ikea Rasts and paint them (probably) a weathered black.
• Bought canvases to do some painting. Unbelievable deal at $6 each at Joann's.
• Silver leaf the dropcloth euroshams so they have kind of a weathered silver finish.
• Get one of those fake sheepskins and make a pillow out of it.
• Already have the quilt, great deal at Fred's a few weeks ago.
• Planned accent colors are yellow, orange and fuschia, which Todd has agreed to.
• Replace the light fixture. I actually think I might be able to sell it; it's a vintage capiz shell flush mount and it's actually kind of cute, just not anymore in this room. Couple of the contenders are on the board. I'm still shopping. 
• Paint trim/built-ins at some point. This will be a big job. 
• Need throw blanket. Still haven't figured out what that should be.

Luckily, I still like the blue a lot. Can't wait till this one is a wrap, but the process has been a lot more fun lately.