Last weekend I knocked another item off my list: cleaned, sanded and painted the side driveway entry railings. Despite what the image would have you believe, they actually weren't that rusty. No, my friend, someone, somewhere in the 70-year history of this house not only hatched the idea to paint these railings orange but actually acted on it. Not that many things about this house leave me befuddled anymore, but this did. Seriously, WTF. An orange wrought iron railing?
So obviously, it looked delightful. There was some rust, some orange, and mostly a lot of chalky old black. And some moss on the steps that I sprayed off with the hose.
Knowing that spray paint was absolutely the way to go for this project, I prepped the living daylights out of the side of the house and the steps. Black spray paint next to a white house is not the time to mess around.
Even so, the overspray was ridiculous. RIDICULOUS. Like, shot four or five feet ridiculous. Got all over my hands.
I've used this paint before and haven't had an issue, but apparently I got two dud cans because the one that made the mess was the can that actually worked. The sprayer in the other one was clogged, so I ended up using the messy one for both cans. (I pried the top off the first can and put it on the second. Sometimes spray paint acts up; it's not terribly uncommon that I end up having to swap out nozzles to get something to work.) Yay...
I'd probably use it again at some point but I'd want to test it in the store before going home with it. Not really fun to have to take a bath in mineral spirits to get the paint off your arms, hands and feet, and then have to scrub the side of the house with mineral spirits too. Five feet of overspray? Come ON. How was I supposed to prep for that?
But it did come out looking really nice. The black is crisp and because the finish has a little texture in it, it hides the unevenness where the paint partially flaked off the railing.
I'm still getting used to the shininess of it, too. It's been dull and awful for so many years. Still kind of a lot to tackle on that side of the house. Bit of white touch-up painting, paint door (white? Black? I feel like it should be something fun but I'm not sure what.), and I'd love to add a window box to brighten things up.
But there's always another project left, right? In the meantime, look, shiny! And not orange. And that's almost always a win.
