Bunk beds status report

Howdy all.

Sorry for the lack of posting of late. Excuse #1 is that there haven't been many new developments; just a whole lot of waiting. And yes, it's killing me. KILLING. ME. I've never been known for my patience. Waiting for the ice to leave the lake (it has) waiting to get a boat (we haven't).

Excuse #2 is that I got derailed last week working on the tutu tote for my wee dancing daughter and this week putting coats of paint on the bunk bed boards. (More on that in a minute).

Then, Easter weekend turned out to be absolutely gorgeous (25°C? Yes please!) so I spent all of it working way too hard in the gardens around the house getting them ship shape before I utterly abandon them for the summer.

So back to the bunk bed boards. I figured it would be easier to paint the boards here and then transport them to the cottage and assemble it there. It's taking a fair bit of time (at least 6 hours so far), but it's worth it. I'm really happy with the colour.

Step 1 was to prime the unfinished wood boards. I opted to use spray-on BIN primer sealer. I love this stuff. It will cover and seal anything (stain, oil, latex, pine sap, water damage, smoke stains, you name it). Would I use it again? Absolutely, but I'd buy a can of the brush-on primer instead. The spray cans didn't yield the coverage I wanted so I went through four of the darned things, and they had a tendency to get gummed up while spraying - even though I was diligent about inverting the cans and spraying to clear out the nozzle after each use). That and my garage is now coated with a fine, white mist. Good thing I used a drop sheet over the important stuff!

Where was I? Oh, right. Primer. I wanted to use a grey primer so it wouldn't show through the paint as much, but they didn't have grey BIN. Once the boards were primed I gave them a light sanding because the primer had raised the grain a little bit.

After that, it was on to the paint. I used a pint (honestly - how anachronistic are the paint companies!? In no other situation do I refer to something as a "pint". Maybe I'm not drinking enough draft beer?) of Benjamin Moore Confederate Red. It's a medium red with just a hint of rust in it. The first coat went on with reasonable coverage, and the second coat is nearly perfect.

If I were being extremely fussy, a third coat would be warranted, but I want the room to have a bit of a rustic country feel to it and it is, after all, a cottage. There is no room at a cottage for perfection, with the following exceptions:


- weather
- sunsets
- meals
- company

So the boards are very nearly done. I still need to do the second coat on the back side of a few of them, then I'll be pleased to have that job out of the way.