In my mind it was easier. On Saturday afternoon, I would throw a tarp on the lawn, and –cool drink in one hand, spray can in the other– I would paint my drab tag-sale wicker chairs a cheerful yellow. On Sunday, I would complete this task with a top coat, probably sometime between clearing the breakfast dishes and running a few miles on the beach. During the following week, I would get the dumpy cushions recovered in the City, and, by the next weekend, my easy-breezy, cheap-and-cheerful wicker chair makeover would be complete.
It didn’t happen quite that way.
In early June, we found a pair of wicker chairs at a tag sale in Southampton. They were well made, and I liked their shape, but their paint and upholstery evoked the back porch of the official residence of a Victorian prison warden. But help was on the way.
The next weekend, I picked up two cans of bright yellow spray enamel at the hardware store, spread out my tarp and set to work. It didn’t go so smoothly. By the end of can number one, I realized that it would take a carload of spray paint to cover the stubborn green on those chairs.
To lay the paint on thick and quick, I switched to applying liquid paint (Benjamin Moore semi-gloss enamel called simply “yellow”) with a 1/2″ nap short roller and finishing up with a brush. Four labor-intensive coats, two weekends and nearly a gallon of that paint later, my sunny yellow finally defeated the correctional facility green. Slimmed-down cushions covered in a brilliant Sunbrella stripe from my friends at Les Toiles du Soleil, completed the transformation.
In the end it was more work than I had imagined, but I think it looked better too.
