Projects: Painting and Upholstering

 I have been wanting to paint the front door for awhile.  I decided that it would be a good way to test out my barn paint color -- since I wanted to choose a color for the barn that goes well with a brick house. 

 I know that I don't have a steady hand and I hate wobbly edges so I use a lot of painters' tape. As I mentioned in the barn project post, my Grandpa P was a professional painter (not the artist kind, the contractor kind) and I often wish that he were still around to give me tips. He died before I was born.  Either my dad or my grandma told me that he would probably say that it is all in the careful preparation beforehand. 

Even after all that careful preparation there were some spots where the previous owner's paint job got on the center glass and also some glue or something coming from between the welded layers. I spent a lot of extra time making sure that was all scraped for a very clean edge (that probably no one else will ever notice, but at least I am happy with it). 

Good thing I tested out this color before I bought paint for the barn! The color is SW Pewter Green. It's one step lighter than the SW Ripe Olive I ended up using on the barn. I like it with the brick, but if you look at the plants near the door the colors look terrible together. 

After we had the garage doors fixed and automated, hubby pointed out that the root cellar door was in sad shape. Brother M and I worked on repainting it as one of his projects.  This photo shows what it looked like after the top half was cleaned with dirtex. 

Here it is after being completely cleaned and painted inside and out.  We did not take it off its hinges, just taped them off very carefully with painters' tape. 

That same grandpa who was a painter had this armchair. It was handed down to me by my Aunt J. She said that he used to sit in it every night.  Well, that was obvious because its upholstery was in sorry shape around the arms. I started measuring and cutting fabric to slipcover it right before Baby A was born. I didn't finish. 

I worked on it an hour here and there while baby A was napping. Just before we started on the barn project, I finally finished it. 

The fabric is a nice woven weave canvas ticking -- very washable. All the edges are serged to prevent fraying.