Spray Painting (& not just out of a can!)

It's been almost a year since I bought this table & chairs off Craigslist with every intention to start the project long before now. However, last week I finally cashed in on a Christmas gift I had received - a gift card to Home Depot - & bought a new paint sprayer! (this is the coolest thing ever!)

I figured out quickly that you can't just pour in the paint & start spraying. There is a certain consistency the paint must be in order to actually come out of the sprayer and then form an even, non-speckled coat. Because the paint I bought had a latex base I just added a couple teaspoons of water & gave it a good stir. Had I any patience to actually read the instructions before I started, I would have figured this out a lot easier!

Also, had I any patience, I would have taped off the wood seat before getting started. Here are the "before" & "during" pictures. I need to add another coat of the ivory/cream color, sand the seat down & stain it. (And of course repeat all those steps on the other three chairs and the whole darn table! yikes! no wonder I didn't start this sooner!)

I'm a HUGE fan of the sprayer. After re-doing a crib, I quickly learned how much spray paint can add up! One bottle is about $4 - between the primer, first coat, & second coat I easily spent $50 on paint alone. A gallon of paint on the other hand is less than $20 & will easily be able to cover this entire table, all four chairs, & probably many more projects to come! I can't wait to post "after" pictures!