It started two Sundays ago.

My heart sank when hubby pulled into the Lowe’s parking lot after lunch. Going to Lowe’s with him is as much fun as pouring salt water over a paper cut on my finger.

Resigned to my unhappy fate, I decided to issue him a warning like this: “Fine! I will go into Lowe’s with you today. Because today is Father’s Day. But remember, EVERY DAY is Mother’s Day. So don’t piss me off!”

I lagged behind them into the gigantic Lowe’s store. To my dismay, the three of them headed straight for the paint aisle. So much for that warning…

The kids have been begging to paint one of their bedrooms their favorite color of orange. And their dad is going along with it. I am the only one in the family sane enough to find the idea of painting a room in colossal orange disagreeable. Clearly, he was trying to evoke Father’s Day privilege to override my unwavering objection to their orange room plan.

Luckily, I am smarter than the three of them combined, and knew that childish brains are easy to distract. I rushed to them with a big grin.

“Hey, if you guys are interested in painting, I know a great project for you guys!” me

“What’s that?” the three of them turned to me.

“Remember that very nice table and chair set from Pottery Barns your aunt bought for you guys?” me.

“Yeah.” the three of them.

“Well, they look really beat up under all that sun and rain for the past few years. You never even use it anymore. But, if you guys cleaning it up, fix it up a bit, and add a new coat of paint, we can definitely squeeze a few more years of good use out of them again.” me.

“Hmm….” the three of them.

“And you can paint them in any color you like! Orange, for example. I will be fine with any color you choose.” me.

“Yeah!!!” the kids cheered.

“That sounds fun.” hubby approved.

“Great! Go make your color selection. I will go visit the appliance section, and I will come back to meet you guys.” me.

The kitchen appliance section at Lowe’s is my favorite. I love the shining appliances standing neatly in a row all staring back at me. After about 20 minutes of drooling there, I headed back to the paint aisle.

“Mom, we picked out 5 colors.” my baby ran over and announced happily. “We are going to paint each of them in a different color.”

“FIVE colors?” me. Something was not so perfect with this plan. And it was not because my idea back-fired on me, rather it was my husband who mismanaged my fine idea.

“Yes, we are going to paint the table orange, then each of the chairs in a different color.” my 11-year-old explained helpfully.

“What, are you kidding me?” I looked at my husband. “So we are going to pick up 5 gallons of paint just to paint a kid’s table and chair set? That is the most inefficient and uneconomical way to paint!”

“We also need to pick up primer and base paint, and probably exterior protection varnish.” hubby added.

Luckily, a Lowe’s paint specialist came to our rescue. He was the nicest guy. He offered to dispense my kids’ 5 chosen colors into sample jars for us. Each sample jar cost just $2.50, so he saved us a small fortune that day. And we didn’t have to store 5 big jars of bright paint colors in our garage for the next 20 years. Bless his heart!

So that afternoon, the kids and hubby got to work. I left them alone.

This project ended up taking them two weekends. They cleaned and sanded the surface.

They did the base paint in white, then had such fun turning their old tables and chairs into new with fun colors.

This turned out to be a great Father’s Day project. And now, we have this “brand new” Potter Barn table set in our backyard.

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