Splash-Pod: The Personal Water Park

Step 5 Painting the wood

I went with a single color for the project, choosing "Buzz Lightyear Blue" from the Disney color collection at Home Depot.

The first step is to prime the surface with a heavy duty outdoor-rated primer. I chose Kilz Premium for it's superior commercials and excellent labeling. It also had prime product placement on the shelves at Home Depot which really influenced my decision. Sarcasm aside, apparently this stuff is really good so go with it. I put two coats of primer on all of the side panels and three coats on the top panel. To keep things somewhat smooth, I did a light sanding with 200 grit paper between coats. The final coat was sanded with 400 grit.

I let the primer dry overnight before continuing with the enamel. Again, the sides received two coats of paint and the top got three. We were planning on repainting the patio in a couple of weeks so I didn't bother with drop cloths. But I would suggest using these in most environments. One thing to note - oil based enamel takes forever to dry. It holds up very well against the sun and water but it really needs to set for a month. I didn't want to wait that long so I just dealt with the occasional paint spot on my hands/clothing.

The final step was to apply the varnish. I wanted this to be as glossy as possible so I bought a quart of high gloss spar urethane from Minwax. The same process was repeated - two coats on the sides and three on the top.

This whole painting process took a little less than a week due to drying time between all of the coats.