Hello!

This is my first ever blog post. Hoping it’ll be the first of many as time goes on but lets see on that!

Why have I started writing a blog? Aside from wanting to add another thing on to my never ending to do list, I thought it could be a nice way of talking/rambling/waffling on about things that seem a bit too long for a social media post or a newsletter.

So without further ado, here goes our first ever blog.

Furniture painting in the sun – Yay or nay?

It sounds rather wonderful doesn’t it? Working from home, in the garden with the sun shining down on me and the project at hand. And it is. It’s great to be able to spend some time outdoors doing some work. It’s not always easy to get that when you’re working at a desk or rely upon a computer.

But painting furniture you can.

There’s a lot to like – the added vitamin D, the fresh air, the sound of the birds as I work. The paint dries quickly too!

However, the paint can also dry TOO quickly. Leading to overbrushing. Particularly on second/third coats. You can’t quite tell whether you’ve already done it, so you go over a spot and boom, you’ve just created more work because you need to sand the bits that you’ve over brushed.

And there’s the added challenge of ‘do I need suncream for half an hour?’ The answer to this is yes, yes always. And what about if a fly or bit of garden blows onto the painting surface?! ARGH!

We’ve been upcycling furniture for 5 and a half years now, and we’ve learnt so much about seasonal painting.

In winter everything is so SLOW to dry. On really cold days it can take an entire day for a coat of paint to dry, and that is inside! You get the opposite in Summer, things can dry TOO fast, even indoors. But outdoors, it can be a real challenge as the paint dries faster than you can paint. And then on the flip side, when it gets humid, things slow down again because the air is too moist to allow the paint to dry. This is where you get caught out because you might think it’s dry but it stays sticky for a lot longer than you’d like, leaving fingerprints if you touch test to see if it’s dry.

Spring and Autumn are both pretty good, so long as you are indoors you should find your painting dries at a decent rate. It’s too risky trying to paint outside either side of summer for fear of rain.

So, in conclusion, although I love the idea, and almost certainly will paint outside again, in my opinion, to ensure a good quality paint job, stick with painting inside. Keep the door open if you want to feel warmth of summer, that way you’ll be less likely to over brush, and you won’t get sunburn!

We have a dedicated workshop space to be able to paint in. This works well now we’re in our new home as we can take on commissions and paint furniture for general sale such as our latest corner unit, without taking up space in our house. If you are considering revamping a piece of furniture but perhaps lack the space, maybe we can help. If you’re in the County Durham area, we can collect and deliver your furniture in addition to the painting, saving you the hassle of transporting it to us. You can also browse our current range of upcycled furniture.