a small restoration

a wrought iron garden stool was rusty where several layers of old paint were peeling away

I began working before I thought to take a picture of the peeling paint and rust.

This old stool was sitting by a trash can on the road as I was passing in my car a couple years ago. I was enchanted by it's style and pulled over and threw it in my trunk. Once I got it home, it sat on the back stairs for a long time until I decided to get to work on it's  restoration. I haven't ever done metal restoration on this scale, I was learning as I worked. First the old paint had to go so I pulled out the wire brushes and gave it a try. Got some paint off but I needed a scraper, which I soon borrowed from Mom in Manassas. We also went to the hardware store shopping to buy a rust remover I had heard about called Naval Jelly and we got some spray primer and paint to finish the job. One thing I liked was this stool was originally painted several shades of green and that was an unusual color for metal furniture so I wanted to find a nice green in the spirit of a restoration. There were several layers of green on the stool, granny smith apple green, an acid green, a dark forest green and one layer of creamy white among those layers of old paint. At the hardware store I had a choice of John Deer tractor green, dark green or bright apple green and I chose the dark green thinking it would go best with my other iron garden furniture which is all black. 

After I scraped off as much paint and rust as I could by wire brush scraper and steel wool,  I broke out surprisingly hot pink Naval Jelly 

Naval Jelly is a type of acid, I wore rubber gloves to protect my skin. 

After the first application and more scrubbing with steel wool and small wire brush came a rinse with water. Then it dried in the sun to look like this.
Under closer inspection it needed more Jelly. Second coat was applied. 

Finally it was down to the steel! Gray blue and shinny in a few spots. 

Next came the under coat of spray primer, which is light gray in this case I chose it to help the green top coat reflect more light and greenness when it was completely covered.

It looks almost new with this light gray paint on it and I know it is at least as old as I am.

the holes make a nice star design in the top 

I love the twisted legs that have loops for feet and the big buttons that hold them on as well as that star. 

Before the sun set,  the second coat of primer was dry, I decided to complete my project with the dark green satin spray paint. I think it will need one more coat of green paint after these harden off. This morning, I sat upon the stool to draw my cone flowers in the garden. It makes me smile to have an antique stool for our garden that looks almost as it did when it was new. Restoration accomplished. Next I want to fix up the black furniture that is beginning to show small spots of rust breaking through the black paint. Taking care of it now will be easier than this project but the challenge was well worth the effort again giving me new understanding and a feeling of accomplishment.

Day 12 purple cone flower sketch