Aqua Quartz
Drumroll please.... the shelf is painted. Finished!
Finally.
It only took like three weeks? Ugh. There was the color-choosing, paint-buying, sanding, cleaning, priming, painting, painting again, painting again, painting again, even more painting, finishing, and lots of waiting in between.
Let's back up.
Did you know that Kona cotton can be really handy for choosing paint colors? This piece of
is about the same color as the swatch I had chosen, Aqua Quartz by Valspar.
So for a few days I left it out on the shelf pretending to be paint. Helped me take the plunge! I also researched how to paint furniture and found these two online resources:
and
. Armed with new how-to knowledge and The List, I went shopping. Only somehow I let the paint guy at Lowe's talk me into buying a high gloss paint so that I wouldn't have to use finish. Don't know how that happened? Everyone who's anyone (just kidding, I am such a newbie) says you should put a finish on painted furniture.
Heather and I tackled the project together. We learned to use my husband's power sanders and got all sticky with the tack cloth (great product, by the way) cleaning up between layers. Everything went pretty smoothly (and as slow as molasses) until it came to the 2nd coat of paint. Which was supposed to be the last coat. But wasn't.
I'll not bore you with all the gory details, but we eventually put six, yes SIX, coats of paint total on the top of the shelf, in an effort to get it right. I threw 2 temper tantrums. And this reminded me of what it felt like to be a new quilter. So, so many questions! You halfway suspect that the questions are trivial, but also wonder if going the wrong way might somhow make or break the project. Stress! Confusion! Need of friends.
At the end we did spray on Minwax finish (As recommended by those online paint tutorials. Ask them, not me). I've always hated how my husband's homemade furniture is slightly sticky if he paints it. Turns out that the Minwax finish eliminates that stickiness. Next time, I'll say "no" to expensive high-gloss paint and buy more finish. Totally worth it.
I absolutely love the aqua shelf! This image, taken in the early morning, shows just how much it brightens up that corner of the room. Looks great with the baskets too! I forsee lots of stitchy photographs in my future with aqua backgrounds.
But, I think someone else is going to have to paint that piano....