Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Painted Thonet Stool, I Did It!

Anybody remember this post about my Thonet stool from last year?  Yeah, me either.  Of course, if I consider that I first attempted to refinish it in 2002 or 2003, putting it off for another 17 months doesn't seem so terrible. It is all a matter of (distorted) perception, I guess.


Aside for the terrible refinishing job I did, I also used (or abused) the stool as a plant stand.  The pot leaked and hence the cracks.  Normal blogging procedure would be to now show a series of pictures showing the step-by-step DIY.  I am going to break the tradition, mostly because I neglected to take pictures.  I did Instragram a photo showing the first coat of color going on.  My process was simply to agonize for weeks about color choice, decide on black, fill the cracks (standard wood filler), lightly sand the surface, spray a coat of primer and finally spray several coats satin paint.  When I first went to buy the supplies I was positive one can of spray paint would be more that enough, but I ended up using almost three cans.  Seems excessive, but most of the paint was wasted when I sprayed the legs.   That and I was obsessed with getting the finish as close to perfect as I could.


I am beyond happy with the results.  Notice the yellow vase?  That is my trade off for my paint choice.  Black is the new black, you know.





Thursday, September 20, 2012

The Year of the Tomato

When I sowed my tomato seeds back in March, I never thought that this is what I would end up with:





Do I  need to mention that we have had quite a crop this year?  Obviously, tomatoes have been on our plates often in the last weeks. They are also seen frequently (on said plates) in my Instagram feed.





Bruschetta, Caprese, sliced tomatoes with cream cheese on whole wheat bread, and Texas Caviar (recipe via Jules) are some of the things we have been having in the last few weeks.   I know the garden tomato season will come to end soon, but for now I will it enjoy every single day.