One of our favorite things about our house is the ginormous deck. One of my least favorite things were all of the splinters I got in my feet every time I went outside. Because I refuse to wear shoes in the spring and the summer. It's a rule. And I especially refuse to wear shoes on my own deck. Well I certainly learned my lesson during this next project- I ended up with a two inch splinter in the middle of my foot that I broke in half.... it ended up coming out on its own. Kind of. Eventually. The good news is I didn't die, and all my limbs are still attached. AND, we finished our deck project.
We knew we wanted to hop on board the gray-deck-white-rails train. We also knew we would definitely NOT be replacing boards or anything like that, so we went with the best option we had- Rustoleum Restore deck paint stuff. This stuff is baller status, and that's an official HGTV term. A few things about this: it's expensive. Not as expensive as replacing your whole deck. But it's pricey. And you need a lot of it- you probably need more than you think you need. We had to go back to the store and double our order. Also, it is extremely- EXTREMELY- messy. We learned from my dad's mistakes and papered the entire deck rails/house (photos to follow). It got all over Scott's shoes. Just a warning.
First thing we did was sand and paint the rails. Above, you can see how pretty I thought the new sanded/old weathered wood were together. And also a "before" shot of the state of the deck. Many a splinter was had here, on the rails and the floor. No bueno.
Paint paint paint. This took a thousand years. I think it probably took 8 hours or more between 4 people to do two coats of the white. It was seriously a pain in the butt and I got sunburned on only half of my body doing it, so it was also stingy and embarrassing when I went back to work. BUT- look how good it looks, even with just the rails done.
This was the following weekend, since painting the rails took so much longer than expected. Here you can see my lovely- and also time consuming- papering job. And then we got to paint.
Every other step so you can still climb up and down as needed and don't paint baby in a corner.
The color we chose is called "slate." It's sort of a medium gray with maybe a little bit of blue? I'm really bad with colors. Just check out the photos and maybe you'll get the idea. You need two coats- two THICK coats- and it takes a very long time to dry, as well. But, when it's done....
Drying....
Dry!
SOOOOOOOO good. This restore stuff is made for old wood decking. It is super thick, so it fills up splinters and cracks and holes and whatever else, so the wood won't come off in your toes anymore. It also has grit in it, so it's not slippery in the rain. We chose this middle/light gray, because I was afraid a darker color would be too hot in the sun- but I don't know if that is something that really happens or not.
We need to do some touch-ups; Abby ran through some white paint and got footprints in some places, and there's one spot where I think we were too impatient and put furniture on it before it was ready and now there's a circle of wood showing through. But other than that, I think it looks a billion times better, AND, I can be as barefoot as I want without any worries. Mission accomplished. Bring on summer!
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