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Made in the UKProtek’s latest TV appearance on Prue’s Great Garden Plot
After living in the same house for 46 years, Prue Leith and her husband moved to a new build house in Jan 2020.
The new garden was a blank canvas and a wide-open brief BUT it had to have colour and lots of it. The colour was going to be added through plants and trees but also through upcycling their garden furniture. And that’s where we came in.
Back in February we started speaking to John, Prue’s husband about our wood stains. We then sent a colour chart, which showed all our colours – over 100 of them.
Prue and John selected some of the brightest, and most vibrant shades that would undoubtedly ‘pop’ in the garden.
After lots of chats about wood preparation and discussion about what the furniture had already been treated with, we offered to paint some of it for them. We wanted to make sure they got the desired bright colour finish, as most of the furniture had been previously treated with a black spirit-based product.
Some of the colours Prue and John choose were from the brighter palette of our Wood Stain and Protect range. As we wanted to give the best possible long-lasting finish along with covering already spirit-based treated hardwood furniture, it needed to be done in our Royal Exterior Superior Wood Finish. We tried to persuade John to go with one of our existing Royal reds but he was insistent it had to be “Guardsman Red” So we made it, we loved it, so much so we have added it to our website as a new exclusive colour.
Before we knew it, John had filled a van and was heading to our factory in Somerset, and we were creating new bright colours in our Royal, he arrived before the office was even open, fortunately he wasn’t waiting long!!
The van was unloaded, and we could see that there was plenty to do…and John told us that we had a week to do it in. Yikes but we are never put off by a challenge.
We had a selection of furniture to try, and John told us what colours he wanted each piece. We especially loved the tired looking old rattan chairs. We persuaded John they would look totally revitalised in our Metallic Bronze rather than a dull brown, we were definitely getting a bit carried away with all the dramatic colours that had been chosen.
So, what did we do?
1. We sanded everything down. Preparation is key to the success of upcycling. If you paint over old stains and paint, it could peel if you don’t key into the wood.
2. We gave it all a really good wash, so no dirt or sawdust would get caught in the coating, making imperfections.
3. We used our Wood Preserver Plus Plus as an extra level of protection for the old wood.
4. We patch tested, making sure the colours were covering the previous colour.
5. We painted with a brush and a sprayer, a sprayer was much quicker, but messier!
6. We stood back and admired our handiwork BUT would it pass the test. Would John and Prue like it?
We have loved being involved with this project and we can’t wait to watch Prue’s Great Garden Plot
on Wednesday October 6th at 9pm on More4.
In the meantime, to see what happens next follow our social pages and pop back to our website over the next couple of weeks.
