A Concrete Catastrophe

We stained the concrete in the backyard this weekend.

Yeah... we don't like either. 

The plan was to stain the plain concrete a light, warm terra cotta color to warm up the space since it was pretty blah to begin with. We had read a few home blogs and discovered that people have stained the concrete with fantastic results. It seemed like an easy and cheap project. So we went to Home Depot and picked out a color of Behr Semi-Transparent Concrete Stain we liked. 

That was a few months ago. Jon actually forgot what color we had chosen since it had been so long. Why did we wait so long? The stain cannot be applied if its over 90 degrees. So we really couldn't apply it in the height of summer. We had already done a little bit of work back there we decided to focus on projects we could do in air conditioning. Now that its not crazy hot we decided to finally apply the stain. 

First Jon cleaned the space. The instructions said to work in 4' by 4' sections. Luckily our patio floor is already broken up into sections. That way we could move all of the furniture to one side and then do it again but on the other side we it was time to paint the other half.

Poseidon watched us work.

Then we got to staining. Jon used the roller to get majority of the space and I used a paintbrush around the edges. I know the photo is of Jon but I swear I helped. 

As we were doing it we noticed the color wasn't really what we thought we had originally picked out. And we noticed it was really orange. But not in a good way. This is coming from two people who actually embrace orange is all its bold glory. We both hoped that it would dry lighter but it didn't.

Apart from the color we don't like the uneven application. Its really dark in some places and very light in others. The instructions say that two coats help achieve an uniform color but we don't to intensive the orange. 

Now we really don't know what to do. Jon is leaning towards finishing it off just to see what it would look like but I think it would be overwhelmingly orange. I want to paint it a darker color. Jon mentioned a coworker of his painted his concrete patio with a product by Rust-Oleum that left it shiny and smooth. We're thinking that might be the new plan. Maybe a dark gray or a brown with a glossy finish. I think if we chose a dark brown it will match the new flooring we'll eventually put in and make the outdoor space look like a extension of our home. The gray would define the space more and be neutral enough to appeal to buyers down the road. 

Either way, the orange has got to go. After the shutter debacle this project is our biggest mistake. At least this is an easy fix!