Silver Claws

In the interest of preventing blog overload via giant post, I'll just talk about one house project Steve and I tackled last weekend. More updates to come.

Our house came with a clawfoot tub in surprisingly good condition. It was obvious, however, that it had been painted at least twice previously and the latest color didn't exactly thrill us.

We could have spent a ton of time and punished our lungs trying to strip off the old paint, but we decided to just try painting over the existing surface.

First, we sanded and vacuumed up the debris.

Then, I taped off the plumbing connections and edge.

Finally, Steve painted. By the way, we're aware that spray painting indoors is a bad plan. However, moving the massively heavy tub to a better ventilated location was not an option. It is so heavy that we could barely lift a side enough to jam the dropcloth underneath. We had decent airflow thanks to some open doors and were sure to leave the room as soon as we were finished.

Ever the thorough worker, Steve compensated for the dim light in the house by going over the entire surface with a work light to be sure no spots were missed.

With two coats completed, we were very happy with the result. The silver feet are definitely not as nice as if they were metal plated, but for $4, I couldn't ask for more. Besides, who is actually going to kneel down to inspect tub clawfeet anyway?