Faux Painting the Patio

Hooked on Houses is hosting her "Hooked on Fridays" blog party; I hope y'all will click here and have look. Today, I'm hooked on our little patio. I'm also participating in my second Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch!

We never go out there but it is a decorating opportunity. Gordon made us realize our bedroom overlooks a "driveway." It could actually look good and make our bedroom look better. As Tara Dillard would say, it will create a "vanishing threshold" that brings inside out and outside in.

Here it is after 18 years in the woods - 155" by 60" about 65 square feet.


After the pressure wash:



Here is the pattern. Thanks to Dave (best math guy I know) for sending it to me. The problem was how to get full "tiles" along the width between door and the edge,

Tiles will be in 3 "whole" rows.
Tiles will be yellow and red.
There will be a 2" black border.
"Grout lines" will be 1 1/2" black (change our mind on this).

Here are the colors: They complement our bedroom. The aren't matches but we have yellows and reds scattered about the room.

This is all very bright but the theory is the colors will fade behind the leafy, dirty, dusty layer of outdoor stuff get's on there. This is in fact what has happened.

Benjamin Moore Floor and Patio Paint, oil based.

2020-30 "Sparkling Sun"	Yellow faux tiles.
2007-20 "Sly Cherry"	Red faux tiles.
"Black"	The faux grout We didn't need it.

I had to use the Pythagorean theorem to figure out the dimensions. (Fortunately I went to Ga Tech and had a calculator that could do square roots. That was easy enough but laying it out gave me a headache. I drew two sets of pencil lines, both wrong. Finally #1 son helped me do it with masking tape and I was good to go.

Here it is after one coat with masking tape is still on. I think one coat is enough; we're trying to be a bit outdoorsy-rustic.


We don't need to paint the grout lines. The old concrete is perfect as is. Removing the tape was the most pleasant painting experience I've ever had. Look at those edges, corners and even tiles.

Please notice the all important Deep Woods Off. As my brother Kenny says, "it's a little buggy out there."

Here it is in it's grimy goodness, I scrub it a little each spring:




Here is our somewhat vanishing threshold. I can't really show you all the stuff in the the bedroom that pulls the colors (green carpet with black, brownish, reddish, yellowish) and the textures.








This is the ancient view:


Y'all are so nice to come by
Thanks,
Terry

Here is thy way back to the Hooked on Houses "Hooked on Fridays" blog party; I hope y'all will click here and have look

If you are more ambitious about painting smoother concrete, here is an amazing painted "rug" at the Academy Theater in Atlanta's Avondale Estates.


Thanks to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch.