These little spindles above the porch have been a real pain in the butt. Originally I was going to have them tan and blue. So that meant painting them once with primer, then twice with tan, and then the middle sections three times with blue. It’s really hard to paint them because of their shape and the fact you have to paint them from two sides. With the stairs in the way it was hard to find a way to ladder up to them without getting the ladder in the way.

When I finished, I didn’t like the way it looked as there wasn’t enough contrast between the tan and blue and the disappeared against the shade of the porch. So I decided to paint the tan part of the spindle cream, keeping the blue portion. That meant two more coats. Then I thought I’d paint the flat part red, but after painting four of them it started looking too much like a flag store. Lori agreed, too patriotic. So then I tried brown on the next four, and while it was better than the red, it still wasn’t to my liking. Finally I tried Phil’s suggestion, gold. Since I already had gold leaf on the gable, I was hesitant to use gold paint, but it seemed to match well. Now with the blue and gold it looks kind of presidential, so maybe it’s still patriotic after all.