Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Deck Staining, Squared

After my last update a few weeks ago, I got started with my plan for staining the deck.

I wanted to have some color, and decided to give this space something in common with our basement flooring.

With that decision made, I picked out two solid stains to match up with the redwood color I used on the fence. I tried out my colors in the raised areas first.


With those parts done in solid colors, I could see how the three colors would work together, and I decided to go for it. I figured the space was big enough to allow me to make two foot squares (if I had gone with one-foot squares, I would have gone crazy with all the taping).


I started out in what I considered the middle of the deck and began laying out the lines. from there I used a 12-inch metal painting blade to keep the paint within the boarders.  About half way in, I made a "mistake."  Can you spot it?


She Who Must Be Obeyed is a quilter, and she reminded me that traditionally, many quilters would purposely introduce a "mistake" into their work so as not to be perfect.  So, that's my story too, and I'm sticking  to it.


I knew going in that it would take a lot of effort to deal with the visible edges of each board, and that took the most time as I squeezed the brush into the cracks between boards and worked to get complete coverage without getting spots of one color where another color is supposed to be.  I think the end result was worth it.


 It worked pretty well, but I've got some touch up to do yet.

7 comments:

  1. Fabulous! I bet it looks even better in person. That reminds me, I have a deck project....are you available? LOL.

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    1. Ha! I'm available on the same time scale that this took -- see ya in about six years

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  2. That looks great UA! While I do see the "mistake" I really like that it introduced me to that concept of purposely adding one. I'm pretty sure I remember reading the same thing about the folks who make "Oriental" rugs, with the thought that no one except (insert diety of your choice) can make something perfect. Good job!

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    1. Thanks MB, it's been a fun project, but I'm ready to get back to some other pending projects now.

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  3. You are one patiant and meticulous uncle! That is beautiful, I would be scared to walk on it :)

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    1. Thanks. So far the birds haven't bombed it, but I know I'm going to have to tolerate it getting a little dirty. :-)

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  4. This looks awesome - carrying the colors from the basement out was a great idea!

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