Painting pergolas is tedious work . . . especially since the people who originally painted it didn’t do a good job of prepping it.

When I went to scrape off the loose paint, I found a few boards were rotting away. I don’t think the joints were properly caulked, so moisture got trapped between two of the support beams, and since they rested on a flat board, the water didn’t have many places to drain … so it didn’t.

So, rather than take the thing apart — which would basically mean replacing it all, I executed repairs, stripped as much of the old paint as I could, recaulked everything, and I’m now ready to prime and paint.

What was meant to be a one or two day job, got longer because people can’t be bothered to do a good job. Really, it was a half-assed effort and I’m now having to put the other half-ass in. Plus, I don’t think they primed the pressure treated wood (or it was still too wet) so lots of the paint was loose. If I were to give advice to someone who built a pergola, it would be to either leave the natural wood or stain it. You can paint it, but then every two years or so, touch it up before the paint starts to peel, otherwise you’ll have a messy and tedious job on your hand.

So, I’m tired, don’t feel like writing, don’t feel like doing a proper post . . . so I played around with the above photo.

My first iteration was simple . . .

That’s using Topaz Impression 2, Topaz Restyle, and Topaz Studio.

Then, I wanted to try different ‘looks’ using the same three programs.

That looked a little flat, so I bumped it up using Lightroom . . .

And, maybe a little more Impression and some Lightroom tweaks . . .

Then, I tried another Impression preset; one I’ve come to like.

Of course, I could have gone with a classic monochrome look . . .

Really, that’s all I wanted; some mindless editing of a photo with no particular outcome in mind.

I like all of the outcomes . . . I should do this more often.

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below. Goodnight.

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