I love wood finishing

I began my painting journey in 1990. I scored a gig as an apprentice for $2 an hour to learn about classic auto restoration. I loved it. I could not get enough of it. A couple years later I ventured out on my own. I had experience. Too much for my age. The old timers at the shops hated me because I was showing them up.

I had painted an exterior of a house with a friend and had that same feeling. I loved the transition. I loved it when the clients would say WOW. I call it the WOW factor. That is why I do it. I enjoy the process to get to the end result. Sanding, striping, staining, masking, sweeping, the whole bit.

The table in this pic above is one of my very first clients when I moved to Grand Junction. Below is a picture of before. She bought it new and raised her kids on it. Then the kids raised their kids on it. It ended up in the back yard for about 10 years and Grandma was heartbroken.

She called me up and I told here I could help her out. It took me a while filling the oddball places that the veneer had just left the scene without a two weeks notice. Once I had delivered it, it was the look on her face that made me almost cry. I had revived her memories. She no longer had to say goodbye.

I am not completely happy with the outcome, butt hay. She loved it, I knew she would. God gave me this talent, so I trust Him to guide me when I am in real time guessing at stuff as I go. I have the knowledge I just need to assimilate it to meet the specific needs of each task.

I brushed this table out with a four inch square latex brush. I used Old Masters "Masters Armor" acrylic/urethane water based hybrid. I spray most of them now, but the Masters Armor is amazing. It is extremely durable once cured and can be catalyzed if required. It is water based and makes less experienced brush handlers look pretty darn good. Here is a link. It is not an affiliate link. I get nothing for this. https://myoldmasters.com/product/masters-armor

I used various stains to touch up spots. I have found out how to use whatever I have laying on the shelf. If it does not come out of a can I just make it. I will mix two to three different stains to get my end result. If it takes more than three then I have to start over. Red and Green cancel each other out and make grey browns. then you can push it with yellows that lean red or green. Like raw sienna or burnt sienna. Then add a teeny blue or maybe black that has a blue hue or a white leaning color depending on where you want to go.

Do not discount the magical effect that just a teeny bit of white can do. I would think I was just so close but missing something. Then a touch of white would draw it in. It took me about 20 years to actually see it in everything. I was slow I felt. But, look at browns, they either lean green or red. Yellows lean either way also. So do blues. I had no one to teach me in the pre YouTube years. I had to learn by watching my mistakes as billionaires in Aspen paid me to make them.

The next time you are staring off in the distance with something on your mind but you are counting the holes in a brick wall. Look at the paint and you will see what I am talking about.

I told you I love painting and finishing more than anyone else. I am writing this with zero followers as I type just to talk about painting. If ACE hardware could pay me $70 an hour then I would be their paint guru, but the people who run the company can not not see the value. The Execs want all of the money so they hire people who have little to zero knowledge about products or technique.