Painted, polished and pretty

Primed and ready for paint

Quite the eyesore

Manhattan Wrought Iron Gate Painting

A fence encircling a yard or outdoor space is akin to a frame around a picture. It finishes the look and makes everything neat and tidy and collected. Historic homes often have wrought iron fences which add character and style to the exterior. Like many outside finishes, sun, heat, cold, rain, wind, snow, ice, dirt particles and time take a toll on the paint. Once it begins to break down, the metal below can be exposed, rust and deteriorate in looks and strength.

We love restoring these timeless borders. This one in West Village had not been painted in 10 years, so we began by protecting the ground and concrete under it and gently removing the compromised coatings. Once the metal is exposed, we apply a rust converter and metal primer. When that is dry, and we are certain those coats completely encase and protect the wrought iron, we add the finish coats – plural, more than one – for the aesthetic beauty and additional preservation.

Meat shopping in style

Newly painted meat display waiting for shelves

Brooklyn Commercial Refrigeration Painter

That we eat with our eyes is a well-known cliché which highlights the value of presentation, whether it’s on the plate or in the case at the grocery store. We examine the marbling in ribeye steaks, meat stripes in bacon and fresh color and appearance of hamburger, chicken and pork chops. We may not look beyond this to the shelves and display cases which hold the meats, but surely we would notice peeling paint or rusty metal. And likely, we might then look somewhere else for carnivore vittles.

This meat market in Brooklyn is experienced not only in all things meat-related, but also in the value of sharp, clean, neat showcases for their products. We began the project by removing all the shelving and stripping off the old yellow-greenish failing paint. For superior bonding, most surfaces require a primer product which adheres to the material and prepares an excellent base on which to apply the final paint coat. Some of the work was done in a temporary pop-up paint tent we often use on a job site to contain dust and spray paint particles. Our white primer of choice did its job well, and we finished the shelf units with a glossy ebony black - the ideal, even elegant, background for meat display.

Meat display shelves getting stripped, primed and painted in secure temp facility

Meat display back and support sections primed

In the beginning … work progress above