Apologies for our absence last week. We were busy preparing for Thanksgiving and our trip to Memphis to bury Gene’s mom. The funeral was lovely, and it was great to see so many friends and family.
But before we left…
We were on a quest to paint all of the doors in the house. All of our woodwork is slowly being migrated from honey oak to white and the doors need to be painted as well.
We did one door early on with two sawhorses and a paintbrush/roller and it took FOREVER. Sanding, two coats of primer, two or three coats of paint, wait between coats for it to dry, wait a few days for that to cure, then flip the door and do it all again on the other side.
We have 15 doors to paint (we are not painting basement doors, that would add another 13 to the total and we had to draw the line there!). We decided using a paint sprayer and creating a large plastic spray booth would be the way to go.
We created a big plastic room that would hold three doors at a time.
We set up three doors so that we could paint both sides (and the edges) all in the same painting session.
Things started off well…
Steph watched all the videos on using a paint sprayer and even read the manual! We set up a large piece of MDF to practice on to get the settings right. Then we started spraying doors.
The primer went on pretty well. We used Stix by Benjamin Moore instead of our usual primer because it is water-based and better for use in paint spray guns. It is thin, like the Zinnser primer – much thinner than latex paint.
Then it all went sideways.
Once we moved from primer to paint, things got squirrely. The paint went on splotchy. We thought maybe it would smooth out as it dried, but no dice. It dried as lumpy as it went on.
Steph sanded it smooth and tried again. After some more YouTube videos we decided to water down the paint so that it would go on more smoothly. That is what the pros recommended.
We diluted is 3 parts paint to one part water as a starting point and tested it on a peice of cardboard.
Here’s something to know. Cardboard is porous and soaks up water. It is NOT a good indicator of the water to paint ratio for a wood door. Ask us how we know. 😉
The paint literally slid down the doors. Not immediately. No, sir. It waited until Steph was done with all three to start its slide. And by then, the first door had already started to dry a bit.
We tried a paintbrush to see if we could smooth it out again, but it was no use.
Throwing in the towel
Steph sanded the doors down a second time
And then broke out the paintbrush and roller and finished them the old-fashioned way.
What about the other 12 doors, you ask?
We’ve learned our limits. The message is clear and unambiguous. Hire someone.
We’ve contracted the rest of the doors out to the person who is painting our kitchen cabinets (that work will start in January!). He knows his way around a paint sprayer and will do a much better, and faster, job than we ever could. After the two weeks we spent fighting the paint sprayer, it is money well spent!
We’ll leave you with a happier picture – Christmas decorations! As you know, it is our last Christmas in this house, so Steph is taking special joy in the decorations this year. Here is one of her favorites:
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