Thursday, September 9, 2010

Heaven's Gate





Recently I received a call from a client who had purchased an antique gate, imported from France that she had installed in an an outdoor patio area. She was concerned about the finish and asked me to take a look. Though the finish was gorgeous, it was flaking off and virtually crumbling. Any object that's constantly exposed to the elements (particularly iron), in our Midwest extremes in temperature decomposes at an accelerated rate. I could hold off the disappearing paint finish for a while with a spar varnish, but rust was taking a hold on the piece.
Since my client wanted to continue using the piece on the terrace and wanted it to last for many years, our only option was to strip off the crumbling paint and give it a new, but antique look. The gate was sandblasted and delivered for a new paint job.
Before I started sanding and priming the raw metal,I was lucky enough to scrape off a section that exposed a beautiful French green. The piece had been mostly white, with an area down under that was apparently painted green decades ago. A flight of fancy on the part of an anonymous french owner. A work in progress, the piece as of today, has at least 6 layers of paint. I'm still working with the owner on the perfect balance. I'll try to get more pictures when the piece is installed on her beautiful patio.