Painted Garden Stool

I hope everyone spent this important holiday with family and loved ones.  Justin worked the entire weekend, but I managed to sneak in a homemade dinner on Saturday night for him (I made this, and it was amazing).  Today, while Justin spent Easter at work, I enjoyed breakfast with my family and stopped by to spend some time with my best friend and her family.  I managed to make it home with plenty of daylight to finish a project and heat up leftover ham and sweet potatoes for a hungry boyfriend.

We had beautiful weather in Michigan this weekend.  I hear snow could be on the horizon, so I took advantage of the nice weather and cleaned up the yard and patio furniture.  I also moved some furniture around in the house and wrapped up like 10 different projects.  Including a freshly-painted garden stool.

Most of those projects are now sitting in this little corner.

I've been waiting for the weather to break so I could paint outside.  I love spray-painting weather!

At the end of the summer season last year, I snagged a garden stool for $15 at Homegoods.  The color wasn't exactly what I was looking for, yet I couldn't pass up that deal.  I originally wanted it for indoors but since the color didn't match my décor I made it work for the backyard.  

The stool sat outside between my Adirondack chairs for the late summer and fall (okay...and most of the winter until I finally dragged it into the garage).  I never even considered refinishing it until I read this post from PB&J Stories (one of the blogs I follow).  I can't believe I never thought of painting it!  Garden stools usually go for >$100, so spending $7 on two cans of spray paint would still keep my garden stool a bargain. 

Since this stool has braved 3 Michigan seasons, I wiped down the outside with a soap and water mixture (and checked the inside for freshly-hatched spiders - then drenched the inside with the soapy mixture for good measure). 

I then sprayed enough coats of Rustoleum Primer in light coats to completely mask the blue finish (it took about 3 light coats).  The paint dries quick so you only have to wait a minute or two between coats.  I let the final coat of primer sit for about 30 minutes.

I sprayed on 2 coats of Rustoleum White Gloss and then a final coat of clear Gloss Protective Gloss; allowing the paint to dry for 30 minutes between coats.  I waited a few hours before bringing the stool into the house to get all the spray paint fumes out.

Now I'm just trying to find the perfect spot to keep it.  Knowing me, it'll change weekly.

Saturday, I finally decorated for Easter.  This totally counts.  I even hallowed out those eggs (that I used to make the biscotti) and spray painted them.  The egg print may be sistered up with a few others and hung on the dining room wall.

 

How did you spend your weekend? Are you wondering about that tortoise shell in my dining room?  Isn't it awesome?!  I grabbed it the first day it hit the store thinking it would sell out.  So maybe not everyone is crazy about 3D wall art... It is still available.  You can find it in the Nate Berkus collection at Target.

 

Mary

 

 

Linking up this week with the Inspire Me Please Linky Party #6.  Thank you for visiting!  If you haven't seen the other projects yet take a minute to browse the link party.