My "New to Me" Arbor

A friend of mine called a few weeks back and offered me a wooden arbor that she needed to get rid of because her husband didn’t like it. (She will be replacing it with a new metal one.) The arch of the arbor needed to be re-glued and a few spots needed some reinforcement;  otherwise,  it was in good condition.  I’d been thinking about getting an arbor for the south side entrance to the back 40. It was definitely on the “Some Day and We Will Probably Have to Cobble It “ list.

Since bare wood doesn’t last long outside, I painted the arbor with some mistint ($5 from Home Depot) deck finish I’ve used on several other outdoor projects. It is probably going to take another five or ten years to use up this gallon. At least everything in the yard will be a consistent color! This type of a painting project is pretty picky because the lattice has so many nooks and crannies, but eventually I finished. It was a perfect day to paint. I had to two painting projects going at once. I also painted the doors and pulls of the bathroom cabinets of our ongoing bathroom remodel.

A tip for any painting project: Don’t throw away that disposable brush until the project is “finished”. You usually find that you have missed a few spots. In my case, I missed an entire side! I was glad I had that brush in a zip top plastic bag.

My husband installed the arbor and we think it looks pretty nice. The planting boxes really aren’t designed to have dirt put directly into them (they would rot quickly even though I painted them inside and out) so I set pots of impatiens in them. I’m glad my friend thought of me rather than throwing it away. Begonia

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"New" Arbor