Painting Chairs

I bought these chairs made from pallet wood. Many locals make furniture from used wood.  It's a cheap way to build furniture.  Since plastic, metal, fabric, and untreated wood disintegrates in the weather on Bonaire, I thought I would  paint these chairs and they would be a good addition to our apartment patio area. It seemed like a simple project to replace wicker furniture that was falling apart.

Paint supplies are different in Bonaire and Europe.  First of all, the rollers are smaller. I purchased an American roller handle and was unable to find rollers that fit. So I purchased a European style with small rollers.

Paint is different.  Sizes are in liters.  So 2.5 liters is sort-of a gallon (not!) and 1 liter is sort-of a quart. That's my way to understand the sizes of paint cans since I still don't understand the metric system nor the conversion process.

Our friendly paint store is actually a small storefront by some friends' house.  They carry all the things needed for the paint job and also provide advice on how to do it. No water base for me because that paint can't hold up.  It's outside enamel which is a painful clean up.

The paint store recommended sanding the chairs before painting but I opted for the rustic look.  No filling holes, no sanding, just slap the paint on it.

First coat was a white base coat.  I wanted to do the distressed look but my paint guru said that would expose the wood to the weather and negate my plan to coat the wood to make it impervious to moisture. Oh well.

I am the sloppiest painter EVER.  Paint was everywhere on me, on the tarp, in my hair, on my face, splattered everywhere.  I managed to get some paint on the chairs.  Here are the chairs that took three months to paint, multiple trips to the paint store and hours of cleaning up with mineral spirits.