Parking Lot Painting

After the tabletop was stained and sealed, we were on a roll! All that remained to be done was spray painting the base of our table and attaching the two units together. Unfortunately, this was easier said than done.

With a couple of projects I've done pre-blog, I've discovered how fun and easy spray paint is. All you have to do is point and shoot. Unfortunately, spray paint and cold weather do not mix well, and most cans advise that you spray paint when the temperature is between 50 to 70 degrees Farenheit. Well, it's winter in New England and the temperature is rarely ever above 50 degrees! BOO.

So, the base just sat and sat and sat some more. We considered moving it into a large, airy indoor space and doing the painting there, but the idea of unscrewing the pipes, putting them in my car, driving them to another location, reassembling, painting, disassembling, etc. proved to be too much for our brains to handle.

So, the base continued to sit and sit and sit. Until, as you might imagine, the day finally came when we could spray paint! This past Sunday, the weather gods smiled down on us and Tyler and I took the opportunity to move the base from our apartment to the very large parking lot outside. We laid the base on a plastic tarp and secured it with various heavy objects. We took these two precautions because 1)we didn't want our building supervisor to get mad at us for painting the ground - although theoretically the black paint shouldn't have showed up on the tar, and 2) there was just enough wind to cause concern that the tarp might fly up, ruining our paint job.

To paint the pipes, we bought two cans of Valspar Flat Black spray paint.

To use spray paint, you have to shake the can thoroughly (about a minute or so) before its use. Very happily, I whipped out the first can of paint and got to shaking. When the right time came, I bent closely (6-8 inches) to the base and let 'er rip!! Now, you may think, "Hurrah! The table was getting painted", but no. Nooooooo, siree. The paint did not get the pipes. Instead, it leaked. All...Over...My...Hands. If you've never experienced this, well, that's good, because I don't think it normally does. However, spray paint oozing and dripping all over your skin does not feel good. In fact, it's a B&*$C to get off. (No, I wasn't perturbed or anything.) Nonetheless, I ventured forth like the brave (or crazy) DIYer I am and prayed that the second bottle would work properly. I definitely did not have the patience to make another trip to Lowes for more paint, nor did I want to waste the warm weather I had been blessed with. Fortunately, for you, me and Tyler, there is happy ending. When I hit the "spray button" on the next can, it worked! The paint went from the bottle to the table. Hallelujah!

The key to spray painting is keeping the can close (6-8 inches) to the object you're painting, but simultaneously moving the can back and forth over the object to create a THIN coat. If you let the can linger in one place to long, or go over the same surface too many times too quickly, you will cause the paint to drip. No one wants a drippy paint job. Therefore, several THIN coats are key. Luckily, you can apply coats every 5 minutes, so the process goes quickly. I ended up applying 3-4 coats of paint to the pipes, and only created 1 or 2 drips. Almost professional!

After fifty minutes of drying time, the pipes looked completely transformed. They went from this gunmetal-gray...

to sexy black!

I have to admit though, before we spray painted the pipes, I wasn't sure I was going to like the black. After weeks of sitting in our apartment, my brain had gotten so used to the silvery-gray pipes that when we went to paint them I felt like I was losing a little piece of home. In the end though, both Tyler and I agreed, the black looked awesome!